Crimson Pirates
by MC Da Kang
Summary: After everything they've ever known is ripped away from them, a small group must embark on a perilous journey in search of everything they could ever want: money, power, freedom, Revenge. Along the way they'll make new friends and new enemies, but will they survive the many dangers that await them as they set sail for the Grand Line? May elevate to M rating later.
1. The End

This is my first real attempt at creative writing, especially fan fiction. Hope you all enjoy reading it; feedback is always appreciated. And of course, **I** don't **OWN ONE PIECE**

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**The End**

Inside a small dojo atop a small mountain, an old man wearing a black gi with a golden sword design on the upper left, sat in front of a group of about 20 students ranging from their early teens to mid-twenties with his braided white beard resting in his lap. He was talking to them with a stern voice that obviously carried wisdom and many years of hardships: "You must remember, my students, in these tumultuous times it is important to stay focused and level-headed. You must be prepared for anything."

At that moment one of the students, a young girl with black hair pulled back into a short ponytail, spoke up. With her sweet, innocent smile that could light up any room she asked in a curious tone, "Why, Sensei?"

The old man began to open his mouth to answer, but a loud explosion from outside shook the room and interrupted him.

At the same time one of the older boys stood up and grabbed a nearby sword. "What was that?"

**[Moments earlier- Off the coast of the island]**

A large marine battleship was rapidly moving towards its destination as a young marine wearing the standard issue uniforms for low ranking members rushed onto the front deck. "Vice Admiral Tokage" the marine panted, out of breath from rushing up to deliver the news. "We are nearing Todai Island. The main lighthouse is nearly in sight."

The Vice Admiral just stood there for a moment, face covered in shadows and his marine coat hung from his shoulders waving in the breeze exposing his black suit and blood red shirt and tie before responding. "Good; fire a round at the lighthouse as soon as we're in range. Then prepare all cannons for a full scale bombardment." As the young marine ran off to relay instructions, Vice Admiral Tokage looked over his shoulder to his left at another marine: "Contact Commodore Kristoff!" He then turned over his right shoulder to another marine: "Contact Captain Kite!" Looking straight ahead he spoke in a commanding voice to the two marines. "Tell them to make sure their men are ready to charge once we land" he lowered his voice as he continued, "and make sure they leave the line open.

Shortly afterwards, the massive battleship released a single cannon shot. Upon impact, the lighthouse of the island could be seen toppling and crashing to the ground followed by a complete volley of cannonfire along the coast from the front triple cannon of the battleship. As the cannon blasts continued to assault the coast and villages of the island the marines assigned with charging the island stood at the ready on the decks of the battleship and the two accompanying ships: smaller, standard marine vessels.

Vice Admiral Tokage cleared his throat and spoke in a resounding, forceful tone into the Den Den Mushi he was holding in his hands. Speaking to the 300 or so commissioned marine officers on his battleship and the 100 or so each on Commodore Kristoff's and Captain Kite's ships, Tokage proclaimed, "Men we are here to rid the world of a great evil and mark a victory in the name of Justice." The men cheered and Tokage continued. "This island is harboring a number of dangerous individuals, but none more noteworthy than former captain of the Last Light pirates, Zande Ming, a man worth 250 million beli. From this point on, proceed with utmost prejudice. Our target may have aged, but I assure you, he is still worth every beli of his bounty. Do not worry however, men, for we have the burning fury of Justice and Right on our side and on this day, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!" The ships shook with the fervor and passion of the various men onboard just as the three ships arrived at the coast and the marines prepared for their onslaught.

**[At the Dojo]**

"What?!" shouted a young man who looked to be just over 20.

"I said…the Marines are attacking the island." came the stern reply from a dark-skinned young man who looked to be slightly younger than the one before and had a neat, trimmed mustache and goatee combination. His brown eyes shown with a boiling fury as his black hair rested in neat cornrows with the red tips lying on the back of his neck. He was dressed similarly to the rest of the class in martial arts clothing, except he wore black karate pants and a red sleeveless karate jacket with a black belt and black fingerless gloves.

Various grumblings and mumbles came from the students:

"Marines?"

"Why are they attacking us?"

"I'm scared."

"Don't worry, everything will be fine."

"Aargh! The pirates on this island haven't been active for years! Why now?"

"Calm down my students." The old man stated while standing up, his authoritative voice quieting the noise with no need to be raised. "They came for me."

"But why Sensei," came the tear-filled cry of the black-haired young girl "you saved this village… and you've protected it ever since."

The old man, Zande Ming, didn't respond and instead spoke to the young man that initially told them what was happening: "Bo, where are they?"

"They're at the village, but even with the resistance, they're moving throughout the island quickly."

Pondering this, Ming continued, "How many are there?"

After a few minutes, Bo answered, "There's too many to count, but there are three ships- two standard and a battleship."

Ming's face held back some surprise as he let out a sigh before he spoke again. He started out softly, "I was afraid this day would come, but even killing innocent villagers… the Marines truly have no shame." His voice returned to normal as he continued. "There're most likely over 500 soldiers down there. Bo, Jason, Trey… lead the other students and escape this place with as many other people as you can save." He surveyed the entire room and spoke softly: "Be careful. NOW GO!"

Bo was the first to speak up. He spoke with some trepidation and even a hint of fear: "But Master, what about you?"

"They want me, they can have me. A pirate never runs from a fight." He finished with a slight smirk at the fact that he hadn't referred to himself as a pirate in years.

**[Flashback- Seven years ago]**

A small boat arrived at the coast of Todai Island with a lone a man standing in the middle. The man appeared to be fairly aged with pulled back white hair atop his head and a long braided beard falling past his waist. As he stepped off of the boat, you could clearly see that he was wearing an all-black hakama with a wooden sword by his side and a Jolly Roger, of a normal skull and crossbones with a golden sword going through the top of the skull, on the back.

On the docks looking at the odd newcomer were three rough looking figures-a big, burly man full of muscles holding a giant wooden club, a man almost as tall as the first, but with a bushy beard, a beer gut, and a hefty axe, and a shorter, lean man with a rat face holding a gun standing in between them- all similarly dressed in torn, dark brown pants and red muscle shirts, that quickly went to address the man. They were waiting for him as soon as he stepped of off his boat and shared a mischievous grin as the shorter man began to speak in a false welcoming tone. "Hello sir, may I ask why you have come here?" he said while motioning his arms to the town behind him.

"I've finally decided to end my lifelong journey and settle down in this quiet village." responded the old man in a tired voice not actually paying much attention to the group.

The rat- faced man stepped forward with an annoyed look and spread his arms wide while raising his voice to the old man: "We are members of the elite Strong Arm mountain bandits that run this village. From now on, you must pay us a monthly toll of 20,000 beli if you wish to live here."

The old man lifted his head to look at the trio for the first time and simply responded, "And if I refuse?"

At this the smile returned to the small man's face as he menacingly responded, "Why, we kill you of course." He then motioned for his two companions to move forward. "Friends give this stranger a taste of what the Strong Arm bandits are capable of, but… don't kill him" he added in a creepy tone, "he may have some sense and pay us yet." Turning his attention back to the old man he added, "Or, we could always just take it off your corpse if you prefer."

As the two larger men charged at him, the old man simply took a step forward in between the two men that had their weapons raised and without any additional movement- or so it seemed- the two men dropped their weapons and immediately toppled to the ground unconscious.

Unsure of what had just occurred in front of him the remaining bandit lifted the gun in his shaking hand, but before he could lift it all the way, the old man was in front holding the barrel of the gun and speaking in a stern voice, "Tell your boss, I would like to have a word with him. I'll be in town, probably at the bar." The old man then crushed the barrel of the gun in his bare hand and smiled at the bandit as he walked off.

Sometime later, while the old man was sitting quietly in the town's bar drinking some tea and hearing about all the pain and suffering the villagers had suffered, and how they lived in a state of perpetual fear, since the bandits took over, he heard a commotion start up outside, so he stepped up from the stool he was seated on and finished up his tea before stepping outside to confront the bandit leader and his thugs.

He was quickly spotted by the bandits as many of them quickly flanked him and raised their guns ready to kill him as their leader, a massive man probably ten feet tall and bursting with thick muscles with scraggly black hair falling to his shoulders wearing only a pair of khaki cutoff cargo pants, stepped between some of them and towards the old man holding a massive sword befitting of his size, with a jagged, worn out looking blade that had obviously seen more than its fair share of action. The towering bandit leader bellowed to the old man in a deep voice, "I am the Leader of the Strong Arm bandits, Samson Braun, with an immense bounty of 50 million beli, and this is my island. Anyone who messes with my men shall..." He was cutoff as a rock hit him squarely in the back of the head. Braun turned his head around and glared at a group of teenage kids-a lean built boy with shoulder length black hair, a fairly tall boy with grayish white hair going all the way down his back, an overweight boy with spiky dark blonde hair, two identical boys (one with red hair, the other with dark pink), and a tomboyish girl with long black hair tied up into a baseball cap- standing on top of a roof a few houses away, the black haired boy standing out front tossing another rock in his hand.

As Braun growled in anger and yelled a myriad of curses at everyone, the overweight boy on the roof yelled something that couldn't be heard over the commotion. With a growl, he started to turn around and head towards the kids, but was interrupted by the old man stating, "Your fights with me not some kids." prompting Braun to turn around with a smile and tell his men, "Shoot him." while waving a dismissive hand towards the old man.

While the bandits attempted to refocus their guns on their target, the old man dropped into a fighting stance reaching for his wooden sword. He quickly drew it and swiped twice- a horizontal slash, followed by a downward one. Before anyone even knew what happened the thugs' guns fell apart followed by an unseen gust blowing all of the men, except the leader, to the ground and knocking them unconscious.

Braun, now even angrier, stared in momentary disbelief before lifting his sword above his head and growling before bringing it down upon the old man. But, before it reached him, the man hit Braun in the side with his wooden sword, breaking a few ribs, and as Braun stumbled, the old man brought the wooden sword down with both hands on Braun's neck with so much force it broke numerous bones and caused Braun to crumple to the ground.

After this happened, the black haired kid from before ran to the unconscious form of the bandit leader, kicked him and said, "Hmph! All brawn and no brain." Before the rest of the kids could pile on to the man, the old man spoke up to the entire town which was crowded around, "My name is Zande Ming, a pirate" Ming paused as the villagers let out a collective gasp then continued, "I would like to retire here on your island. I will protect this land and even start a dojo to train any kids who wish to learn the ways of the warrior until the day I am no longer able to do so."

**[Present Time]**

As a number of mumbles came from the younger students, Bo turned back to the group with a hardened resolve and spoke with a forceful tone: "You heard him. We will escape. We will not let our Master's actions be in vain."

With that the group led by the three older boys exited the dojo, some rather begrudgingly, most of them carrying a weapon of some sort- primarily swords or pole-arm type weapons, but most noticeable was that Bo only carried a crimson bow with a quiver full of arrows- and started down the side of the mountain in an attempt to go around all of the chaos taking place down in the town and make it to a boat so they could escape.


	2. A Harrowing Escape

**A Harrowing Escape**

The side of the hill was covered in trees and thick forests that were nearly impossible to navigate if you weren't extremely familiar with the environment and terrain, but even for those who were, you couldn't move too quickly because of the thickness and number of the tall trees that grew there in addition to the possibility that you might fall down a cliff edge or run into one of the many large and ferocious animals that inhabited the forests.

The group struggled to make their way through the dense forest as fast as they could in a linear fashion with Trey leading using his strength and heavy broadsword to take down any obstacle in his path, Bo in the middle, his bow and arrow at the ready to strike from a distance, and Jason bringing up the tail end with his halberd in hand making sure that no one surprised them from behind.

They continued on for a few minutes without much activity until an arrow shot right past Trey's ear and landed in some small, furry creature pinning it to a tree. "What the hell, Bo?" an irritated Trey turned around glaring at Bo.

Bo calmly responded, "That is a blood weasel. Be careful, they travel in groups" As the rest of the group looked around and saw what had to be at least 20, no 30, maybe even 50 fist-sized beady eyes illuminated by the night sky staring back at them. The furry rodents had sharp claws and teeth sticking out of their fur and gleaming in the light of the fires and the setting sun. "Does anyone have a match, a lamp, or something? They're scared of fire." After they all shook their head no, still scared of the on-looking creatures' gleaming red eyes ready to tear at their flesh, Bo simply said one thing: "Run!"

The group rushed as fast as they could towards the coast not bothering with cutting down the trees or tripping over roots or rocks. The only thing on their mind was escaping the horde of creatures that wanted to eat them. As they continued to run, Bo slowed down a little and fell back behind the group, pulling out multiple arrows and firing them simultaneously, each one hitting its mark. This didn't do much to discourage the creatures, but it did cut down their numbers even if just by a little bit. Bo continued with this tactic, firing three arrows at a time while trying to keep up with the group behind him and cutting down any that got too close with the blade tipped edges of his bow, there blood blending perfectly with the crimson color of his bow as he deftly cut them down while still managing to fire off arrows.

This task kept Bo's full attention until he was brought out of his zone by a loud yell. Quickly glancing over his shoulder he saw that one of the young boys in the group had fallen over some rocks and seemingly twisted his ankle as his foot was twisted at an unnatural angle near a jagged rock sticking out of the ground, but even so the young boy still used his small, scythe-like kama to cut as many of the small rodents that tried to pile onto him as he could. He could only get so many though as they slowly, but surely, began to overrun him. He could feel their teeth dig into his legs, the harsh, stinging pain filling his mind until he was pulled out of the swarm and lifted up by Bo.

With the kid slung over his shoulder, Bo turned around and continued down the same path as the rest of the group, though they had managed to get a good deal ahead of the two, while just barely managing to edge away from the horde of flesh-eating rodents behind them. The young boy used his kama to cut down as many as he could from his spot on Bo's shoulder as they pursued the group. After what seemed like an eternity more of running-though in actuality it was about a minute or two- Bo finally saw a glint of light through the trees and as they got closer the creatures behind them tailed off or stopped in order to stay away from the light and in the shadows of the towering trees of the dense forest. Bo actually felt somewhat lucky that the group had only run into these rabid, but easy to deal with blood weasels as opposed to/ or in addition to any of the more ferocious large beasts that resided within the forests boundaries.

As he broke out of the mass of trees, Bo laid the boy that was slung over his shoulder down into the sand and attempted to catch his breath as the waves could be heard lapping against the beach nearby since he had finally caught up with the rest of the students. But, before he had the chance to completely catch his breath, he scanned the area in front of him where the other students were sitting or hunched over also trying to catch their breath until something caught his eye- or more like _lack_ of something, or someone. "Where's Johnny?" Bo asked in a forceful voice that shown with a twinge of fear.

"What?" answered the voice of one of the students in front of him.

Bo repeated the question in a more forceful tone, if that were even possible: "Where's Johnny?"

After looking around them, the other students all started to don worried and fearful faces as they too realized that they were in fact missing one of their members. After a slight pause, one of the group spoke up in a hesitant tone, "I-I think he may have f-fell back in the forest." He stammered as he pointed a shaky finger towards the thick brush of trees that they had just left.

Bo started to turn around as he reached for an arrow from his quiver, until he was stopped by the voice of one of the other older members. "You can't go back there, Bo. We have to stick together until we get off this island."

"Jason… I will not leave anyone behind."

"Don't be stupid. You, more than anyone here, know what those those th-things are capable of."

"You're right." Bo stated as he walked towards the group only to stop short and reach down for a rock and a liquid he carried in a pouch he had wrapped around his pants' leg. Bo continued, "And that's why I have to go." as he poured the liquid onto the arrowhead and used the sparks created by rubbing two of the rocks together to set it ablaze.

"Stay here and keep everyone safe." Bo stated to no one in particular of the group. With the now lit arrow nocked into its proper position, Bo then proceeded to turn around ready to reenter the forest and find Johnny.

Bo carefully retraced the path that they had used to get to shore being sure to use the flaming arrow to keep any stray blood weasels at bay. After a few minutes of searching to no avail, Bo decided to go off of the path and search areas of the nearby forest. After even more minutes of fruitless expenditure of energy, he decided to give up and turned back around to meet up with the others on the beach, but he almost lost his footing as he ran into an object on the ground in front of him.

As he looked down to what was at his feet, using the fire to see better, Bo realized that what he had originally thought to be a mound of dirt and unknown animal feces covered by leaves and other forest materials was actually the remains of what used to be Johnny's body. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the blood weasels had effectively gnawed off most of what were Johnny's face, chest, stomach, and limbs leaving behind a mess of ragged flesh and torn, chewed up muscle and exposed bone fragments. Not to mention the increasing and lingering stench of what smelled like raw human flesh being … _cooked_? At that moment, Bo recognized that he had been holding the flame too close to Johnny's corpse and immediately jumped back and, in a visibly panicked state, comically attempted to use his legs to fan and kick dirt on any remaining fires while holding the bow and flaming arrow away with his hands.

After he had gotten rid of any stray fires and overcome the putrid stench of blood intermingling with the smell of rotting, and some partially cooked, flesh, Bo started to turn around and head back towards where the others were resting until he heard an ear-splitting shriek coming from that exact direction. Quickly recovering from the shock, Bo ran through the thick brush in record time, fueled by the adrenaline rushing through his system and numerous, horrid thoughts of what could've caused someone to scream out like that.

Upon arriving at the sandy coast, Bo realized just how lacking his imagination truly was. What lay before him was a gruesome, horrifying scene of carnage. His friends' bodies lay strewn haphazardly, in the same area they were before, bleeding profusely from the numerous bullet holes that riddled even the youngest of them and the boy he had saved off to the side with a bullet through the head. In the midst of the bodies lay a small form with black hair, indistinguishable due to the blood covering it, but Bo was sure that it was Marisol, the innocent little girl from the dojo. The only other student left standing, aside from Bo, was Trey struggling to stay up in front of the group as his vision was clouded by blood dripping from his forehead and his left arm hanging uselessly by his side making it hard for him to swing his heavy broadsword. The only thing holding him up was the will to live and protect his allies against the plentiful marine forces that stood in front of him, untouched minus the few that lay on the ground between them and Trey.

From the scene in front of him, Bo was quickly able to deduce that the marines had somehow been made aware of the group's presence in the area and managed to surprise them by coming around quietly and attacking before they even had time to resist. Somehow, though, Trey had survived but had been shot twice in the arm, and had seemingly been hit in the head with the butt of a rifle in the midst of taking down a few of the marines.

Wanting to save at least one of his friends, and driven mad by the loss of the rest, Bo rushed forward with no regard for himself and acting purely on instinct. As he prepared to fire off an arrow as he ran towards the chaos, gunshots rang in the air followed by the sound of Trey's body falling to the ground in a pool of his own blood as his broadsword was planted in the chests of a marine he'd thrown it at a few feet away in a desperate attempt to take down one more.

Completely overcome by grief and rage, Bo fired the flaming arrow that was still nocked in his bow into the chests of one of the marines in the middle of the group setting him ablaze and prompting him to run around in a panicked state catching nearby marines on fire as well. As the marines' attention was drawn to what was happening amongst them, Bo used that moment to fire off multiple arrows three at a time, hitting random marines in their throats, heads, or chests. The combination of the two attacks had managed to take down almost half of the squad of marines leaving approximately ten still standing.

As they refocused their attention, and their guns, on a charging Bo, the marines all prepared to fire, but before they could Bo had already used a sudden burst of speed to appear in the middle of the marines. While the marines fired off errant shots one after another trying not to hit each other, Bo used his agility and the blades at the tips of his bow to dice and slash at as many marines as he could. Though the blades were only about the size of that of a switchblade, he managed to put enough force behind his swipes that he was able to inflict deep gashes on limbs, slit throats, and thrust deep enough into their chests between ribs to puncture hearts and lungs.

After it was over, Bo stood face to face with the single remaining marine of the group that had attacked his friends. The marine, visibly shaken, let out a scared yell before being grabbed around the throat and actually lifted off of the ground by a young man slightly shorter than him. Letting out stifled gasps, he tried begging for his life as he stared into the cold, black orbs, which were normally a gentle dark brown, that radiated an immense killing aura.

Bo, however, took no heed as he spoke in a cold voice. "You killed them all. ALL OF THEM! Most were merely kids." The marine's continued pleas for mercy and forgiveness fell on deaf ears as Bo released his grip only to plunge one of the bladed tips through the base of the marine's skull and through his brain killing him in one swift blow.

Bo then walked over to where the majority of his friends' corpses lay-particularly the smallest one that was curled up in the center. Getting closer, he noticed that the figure was still alive- shaking and struggling to breath. Gently, he knelt down and cradled the small figure in his arms, turning its face only to see that his assumption was right- it was in fact Marisol's body. She had been shot in the throat, left to bleed out as she watched the others die and heard the screams of pain as they happened and as they ceased.

Bo could see the immense pain and agony she was in through her eyes, but the most apparent emotion was easily sadness- the sadness of seeing her peaceful home island set ablaze and hearing her friends, her family of sorts, die in front of her. Bo was brought out of his thoughts by a sudden cough spraying blood on his face and mingling with the blood on his shirt. Laying her back down on the ground, he closed her eyes and stood up opting to put Marisol out of her obvious misery. Before he stabbed his bow into her to deliver a swift, painless death, Bo muttered, "I'm sorry" in a soft voice and shed a single tear.

Before more tears could fall and he broke down completely, Bo was shaken by yet another explosion in the village. This brought his attention back to the matters at hand and only served to solidify his resolve and verify his mission: **save** as many as he could, **escape** the island, and get **revenge** on those responsible for destroying his home and ruining his life.


	3. Reunion

**Reunion**

Bo was currently crouching on the roof of a building, at the outskirts of the village, trying to pinpoint where someone who might still be alive through this horror might be. In order to get here, he was forced to go back into the forest to avoid possibly being detected, by any Marines that were left behind to guard the ships, as he crossed the coast. After a few moments, Bo finally noticed something that seemed promising: numerous marines converging on a single spot, guns and swords drawn. Unfortunately, he was unable to see who they were all attacking due to the chaos surrounding the whole situation, but he had an idea. If he was right, then even considering the turmoil and his Teacher's directives, he just may leave him; though the person would probably like that. Ultimately he couldn't just leave him, no matter how much he wanted to.

Using his agility to quickly traverse from roof to roof, sometimes dropping off into alleyways to avoid detection by marines who thought they heard something fall from a rooftop and hit the ground nearby, Bo made it to where he could clearly see the marines charging the same spot. After a few more stealthy moves, he settled on the roof of an apparel shop about three buildings away from the clash from which he would have a clear view of the scene of the clash and whatever group or individual the Marines might be confronting.

After dropping into the store and 'borrowing' a pair of black sunglasses with dark red lenses in order to keep any brightness from the fires from impeding his vision and lining up the sights of his bow, Bo could clearly see the marines' target: a lone man who looked to be approximately 6'5 and just over 250 lbs. wearing worn, tattered khaki cargo pants and combat boots with no shirt showing off the fact that he was extremely well-muscled, actually possessing an eight pack with very little body fat. The man was swinging around a large sword, about as tall as he was, that had a jagged and chipped blade showcasing the fact it had seen numerous conflicts.

Bo watched for a while as the man swung the giant blade wildly, with no finesse or technique behind it, until he decided to help and shoot down some excess marines from his spot on the roof. After the number of marines was down to just under 20 and there didn't seem to be any more coming, Bo stood up and started heading towards the area where the man was clashing with the remaining marines.

As Bo arrived on the scene, the large man spoke without even turning around as he swung some of the blood off of his sword after cutting the head clean off of the body of the last marine attacking him. "Bo, what are you doing here?" he said in an annoyed, almost belligerent tone that seemed all too natural for him.

"I'm here to help, Leon." came the response as Bo held a fake smile on his face.

"Nobody asked for your help."

"Nice to see you to. The Marines are slaughtering the entire village. They're going to kill everyone on the island." Bo continued in a serious tone of voice, "Master Ming wanted me to save as many people as I could and escape from here."

"Oh! And where's the rest of the brownnosers?" asked Leon with slight bemusement.

Bo struggled to answer, "Th-They're… dead… all of them."

"Why does everyone seem to die around you?" probed Leon, still not taking the situation seriously.

Bo simply told him to shut up in a stern, commanding voice as he grew irritated with his blasé attitude. "We need to find others, now."

"What about Ray. There's no way he'd die." Leon answered with some seriousness, his signature smirk still on his face. As he said this, he looked over his shoulder only to see Bo standing there with his eyes closed. Turning back around, he waited a minute and inquired, "Find him?"

"Yeah, but they're on the other side of town."

"Yay." responded Leon in a bit of false enthusiasm.

"Don't get too excited." scolded Bo, "Most of the marines seem to be heading up the mountain by now or guarding the ships, which means that the Commanders are probably near the top. We have to hurry so we can get off the island."

They made it across the village with little trouble as Bo led and simply ran past most of the marines leaving them for Leon to take care of, simply adding to the numerous dead bodies of both marines and villagers alike, sprawled out across the streets, over fences, and in various other positions. Leon either killed them or left them to bleed out by slicing off limbs or with a single deep gash in the chest. Only once did Bo bother to turn around: when he heard a marine pull out a Baby Den Den Mushi, but was stopped from sending a call by an arrow driving through his mouth and the base of his brain and finally exiting through the back of his head leaving his limp body pinned to the remnants of a stone wall.

As they neared their destination- a quaint restaurant with slight damage to the front- Bo slowed down and walked the rest of the way, carefully weaving his way through the bodies that lay scattered in front of the building. As he approached the front doors, a blade flew near his head and would have driven into his skull if not for his quick reflexes allowing him to react and move his head to the side enough that it just nicked the bottom of his ear barely drawing blood.

Not even taking note of the scratch, Bo spoke out as he walked into the door holding what had just been thrown at him-a segment of a staff with a large knife blade at the end and a chain attaching it, most likely, to the other segment of the staff, "Now Ray, is that anyway to treat an old friend."

When they entered, Bo and Leon were face to face with a tall man- about 6'2 looking to be just over 200lbs.- with a shaved head wearing a white shirt that had been cut about halfway down the front exposing his broad, chiseled chest tucked into a green sash over loose fit trousers with a tropical design on them. The man was the first to speak. "Bo, you haven't changed much," he spoke in a calm, stoic tone, but then paused as he turned his attention to Leon, "but you certainly have been working out.

Bo then chimed in, "Yeah, but he's still carrying that bandit's old sword around."

Leon, seeming slightly offended by Bo's latest statement, pointed his sword at the man's staff, which was now twisted back together, and piped up, "Ray here is still using those old kitchen knives as a weapon." Leon paused as he returned his sword to his shoulder before continuing, "What happened to your long hair, though. Finally decided to look like a man?" he finished with a smirk.

Ray responded by bringing the blade up to eye level and running his finger over the sharp edge. "These blades are still as sharp as ever and they will forever remain that way. My hair on the other hand… It was either this or a hair net." he said with a slight smirk as he pointed to his shaved head.

Leon spoke again in a more upbeat tone than usual as he wrapped his arms around Ray and Bo's shoulders, "Eh, looks like the old band's getting back together."

At those words, Bo's shoulders sunk slightly as his head dropped and he whispered, "Not entirely."

Ray removed Leon's arm from his shoulders as Leon took his other arm from Bo's shoulders and Ray condolingly offered, "Don't worry, Bo. I'm sure Emma, Taylor, and Tyler are looking down upon us right now. How many years has it been, though? I don't see you two anymore since Leon moved to the other side of the island-"

"-and Bo stays up in that mountain. Those damn marines interrupted my training.

The trio's reunion was cut short as they all heard a rustling come from somewhere to the side. As they turned their heads to the curtain leading to the kitchen, Leon tapped his sword on his shoulder with a bloodthirsty grin, Bo raised an eyebrow in interest at who the newcomer could be, and Ray remained perfectly calm.

Before either of the other two could do anything, Ray held his arm out in front of them to hold them back and spoke to the person behind the curtain in a relatively soft voice, "Come on out."

Upon being prompted, the figure started to peek out from behind the curtain showing himself to be a small child with messy orange hair. Ray gave him a nod to go ahead and step out from behind the curtain and as the child complied, he stumbled and fell due to his nervousness. He quickly scrambled up to his feet and gave a quick bow as he hurriedly muttered, "I'm sorry Ray-san."

Leon, disappointed by the fact that it wasn't someone he could kill, heard the way the child referred to Ray and raised an eyebrow, "Ray-san?"

Before Ray could respond, Bo interjected and stated, "So, this is why you stayed here? You were protecting these kids."

"Yes. These are my students." Ray proclaimed as he led Bo, Leon, and the child into the kitchen to see a group of ten students of varying ages standing and sitting around along with some adult villagers, mostly women and old men, as well, all visibly shaken and scared from what had been occurring around them in the village. Ray then finished, "I teach cooking now. There are also some villagers who came here for safety." Bo nodded his head in understanding as Leon just scoffed.

"We need to get out of here. We're running out of time." Bo spoke up as he got his mind back on track after running into two old friends.

"What are you talking about?" questioned Ray.

"The Marines are the ones doing all this." Ray nodded his head. He already knew that; after all, he'd taken out a number of them as they tried to do harm to his restaurant or innocent villagers trying to run away. "There most likely after Master Ming and they're already headed up the mountain. Even with all of the traps that only those familiar with the mountain know about, the Marines are probably near the dojo by now. Master Ming won't be able to hold them off forever, and if they're strong enough to take him down, we wouldn't stand a chance. We have to escape now." Bo continued.

Not fully understanding, Ray asked, "Who could beat Master Ming? He's one of the strongest men in the North Blue, even at his age."

"I don't know, but when I mentioned that there was a Marine warship and two smaller ships, he actually looked visibly shaken for a moment. NOTHING SURPRISES HIM!"

"Ah, forget the old man. I was going to get him soon anyway." Leon grumbled, waving off their concerns.

This only served to irritate Bo. He spoke sternly. "You will show Master Ming the proper respect. You may not have been under his tutelage anymore, but he still taught you all of the swordsmanship you know. As is, though, you couldn't even beat me." Bo then turned around and headed back to the front to go out the front entrance and towards where the marine ships were docked. "Let's go."

Leon could only grumble and mutter under his breath as he angrily followed behind to catch up with Bo. He was followed shortly after by Ray's young cooking students, the adult villagers Ray saved, and, finally, Ray.

The move to where the shops were docked was mostly uninteresting. The few marines still in the village were there simply to 'clean up' any remaining villagers, although they were being rather easygoing for the most part because they were sure that anyone they didn't catch would be caught in the hail of cannon fire as the Marines departed meant to burn the rest of the island to ashes.

Bo was easily able to take down any of the marines that crossed their path since they weren't paying complete attention to what was going on around them. In their rush to escape, Bo was thankful that due to the landscape of the mountain and the deadly traps lining the path to the dojo from the front, as well as the various creatures that lived in the forests of the mountains, it was not only much faster to use the side of the mountain to get up and down, but also nearly impossible for someone unfamiliar with the mountain to ascend it alone via the front path lest they were extremely strong. This bought him the time he needed to do as his Master commanded and was the reason he was currently so close to escaping.

Upon arriving at the Marine ships, Bo gestured for the rest of the group to stop before he proceeded to quickly climb a tree to get a better view of the people on the deck of each ship. Ray and Leon could see most of the Marines standing guard from their spots on the ground, but Bo needed the higher elevation for easier targeting.

After quickly deducing the basic pattern that the guards used to patrol and the general area that each could probably see, Bo proceeded to eliminate them one by one as quickly and quietly as he could so as not to alert any others before he was ready to deal with them. Bo paused as he looked at the remaining guards. There were about three left on each ship. Deciding that the most he could do alone was take out the guards on one ship while in view of the others, Bo decided to drop straight down the twenty foot tree he was crouched in, landing on his feet without a problem as opposed to alerting every marine that stayed behind by attacking outright since he was fairly certain that there were more marines on the ships than the ones keeping watch.

Landing next to Leon, Bo motioned for Ray to come closer and for both him and Leon to listen. He then told them his plan: he'd take out the guards on the right ship and once the ones from the other ships were distracted, Leon would clear the middle ship and Ray would take the one to the left. Bo then made his way back up to the position in the tree he was in before.

Once there, he took a breath and jumped towards the ship, shooting the two standing back with well-aimed arrows. After firing, he did a mid-air flip and landed on the deck, immediately impaling the front guard through the back of the neck with the bladed tip of his bow before the marine even knew what hit him. However, just as Bo predicted, the marines monitoring from the other two ships had a clear view of the entire scene due to how the ships were docked. Before they could even do anything, though, Ray and Leon were already on the move. Leon used his immense leg strength to jump on board the warship in the middle- an impressive feat to say the least- and stab the front guard through the stomach. Before the other two could recover from the shock, Leon had already slung the limp body off of his sword and was charging them; with one swift stroke they were both down, a deep slash in their chests. At the same time, Ray had hopped on board the third ship and used the superior length of his extended staff to cut down the three guards with only a few adept movements.

With all of the guards out of commission, Ray and Bo went to help the children and villagers onto the largest ship- the marine battleship in the middle- using a wooden ramp that Leon had let down. Once everyone was on board, they were finally ready to set sail and leave Todai Island, the only home many of them ever knew.


	4. Setting Out

**Setting Out**

Finally on a ship, the first order of business for the group was to get away from the island and any Marines that may try to stop them, although it would be nearly impossible to stop the small group at this point, since the majority of Marine forces had gone up the mountain on the other side of the island in pursuit of their primary target. In choosing to dock at that spot, they must've figured that anyone trying to escape would have to go past them due to the noticeable lack of ships of any kind- there were barely even any fishing boats, but those were quickly and easily sunk.

As a first step towards achieving that goal, Ray went to man the ship's steering wheel. Meanwhile, Bo stood looking over the harbor and commanded Leon to take care of the sails so they could ship out. When he heard no response or movement, Bo repeated his command. When there was still no sign of Leon acknowledging the command or doing anything, Bo turned around only to see that Leon was no longer on the deck. Without even bothering to try and figure out where or what Leon might be up to, Bo turned around and set to work on the sails with a low grumble.

After all of the preparations had been made, Ray called down to inform the others that they were moving out prompting Bo to let out a high-pitched whistle towards the island. Just as the ship started to move, cannon shots rang out shocking everyone on board. Bo immediately shot to attention and looked around for the source. He knew it was close, but because he hadn't been paying attention he couldn't pinpoint where. Just as he spotted something extremely telling of where the shots came from another round of shots were heard sparking a wave of slight fear and hysteria, but almost immediately the ships to each side of the ship the group was on sunk, leaving the large battleship as the only one on the dock and calming the nerves of the uneasy kids and adults. Bo could only smirk and bow his head as the ship moved out and he thought about what Leon had just done. Though sometime, okay most of the time, Leon was brash and reckless in pursuit of a fight, he did have moments where he thought ahead such as now- sinking the ships so that no Marines would be able to follow or come after them was admittedly a great idea.

[In the dojo]

"So the marines have come for me. They even sent a Vice Admiral, huh?" Ming spoke in a tired, but interested voice as he stared down some marines.

"In the name of Justice, surrender now or die!" rang Vice Admiral Tokage's voice.

Further talk was temporarily interrupted as the sound of cannons going off could be heard in the distance. After a brief pause it was heard again.

Ming smiled before speaking up in a more serious voice than before and declared, "Those cannons mark a new stage in this Great Age of Piracy. My students have escaped and they'll make a bigger impact on the state of this world than I ever could." The smile returned to his face as he undid the ties around his beard and pulled out a sword. He threw the sheath to the floor behind him exposing the pristine, glistening blade for all to see before speaking again, "They say as one door closes, another opens. I guess my door is finally closing." As he finished the final sentence, all light in the area began to disappear- candles and fires alike died down and went out- and the blade of his sword began to shine a bright, golden light illuminating Ming's eyes which now shown with the glimmer of a man in his prime. It was his first true battle in such a long time and he couldn't wait, even if it would be his last.

Vice Admiral Tokage then spoke again in a calm voice, "So this is your famous blade 'The Shining'? Anyways, I guess you've made up your mind."

[On the ship]

"Goodbye Master" muttered Bo in a low voice just as Leon came barging back onto the deck.

"How you like them fireworks?" boasted Leon

Any answer he may have received was cut off by gunshots coming from the coast. Even now a few marines were futilely trying to stop them. Knowing that guns couldn't stop a battleship, nobody bothered to even pay it any mind. Bo ignored it all, the gunshots and Leon, and walked by merely waving his hand for Leon to follow. Leon begrudgingly complied. He didn't like being ordered around, especially by someone younger than him, but even though he wouldn't admit it, he knew Bo could beat him in a fight and he at least respected that fact. His mood did brighten up and his grin returned when Bo spoke in a low voice meant to be just between the two, "We need to clear this ship."

Bo and Leon walked in silence for a while, not even bothering to open any doors, until Bo motioned for Leon to stop. He then turned and opened a door to his left. Leon readied his sword as the door opened in front of them. Once it was fully open, however, Leon could see that there was no one inside as they walked in. Before he could say anything though, Bo pointed to the wall and began to walk back out of the room. Leon gave a knowing nod before Bo left and smiled as Bo quietly closed the door behind him.

Bo couldn't help but smirk as he heard the sound of a wall come crashing down and the doomed screams of scared men as they were attacked by a wild animal, before they were forcefully silenced. Although, he was actually normally a very analytical individual who didn't agree with senseless killing, the day's events weighed heavily on Bo's mind and as a result he enjoyed the momentary screams of the Marines responsible. It would probably be some time before he returned to his usual attitude.

[With Leon]

Leon had just crashed through the wall Bo pointed him towards. He knew there were victims on the other side because Bo was never wrong about where people or animals were when he focused. Having surprised the marines by jumping through the wall, Leon surveyed the soon to be dead marines. There were five of them, but the worst part was that three of them had guns: they'd never stand a chance against Leon in close quarters with guns.

Before the marines could respond and turn towards him, Leon dashed out at the nearest one with a wide swing that took off the unaware man's arm and gave him a deep gash in his torso, leaving him to bleed out on the floor. He then turned towards another marine just as he was turning towards him with a gun. Leon used a powerful downwards slash to inflict a cut from the man's face all the way down his stomach and simultaneously cutting off his left forearm straight through the bone. Even though his sword was old and jagged, due to Leon's immense strength it could cut through bone with relative ease just like its former wielder was capable of.

Leon then looked towards the remaining three: two with guns, and one with a sword. He rushed the one holding a gun in the middle and hit him with a shoulder thrust setting himself up perfectly in the middle of them and used one full 360 degree slash with all of his weight and strength behind it to cut all three of them down.

Once all of his opponents were down, Leon simply went from body to body delivering the killing blow to each of them separately since all he'd done before was severely wound them to take them out of the fight. He cut the head off the first one, but then stabbed the rest in the heart when he realized he would have to clean this up and if he cut all their heads off, it'd just be more work for him. Once he was done, he picked them all up, holding them so that too much blood wouldn't get on him (he didn't feel like cleaning their weak blood off of himself right now, and went to throw their bodies into the ocean.

[With Bo]

Bo was actually somewhat surprised. He'd just finished going through another floor and the only marines that he had come across aside from the ones he let Leon handle were a few gathered together in a room. They weren't as prepared as the previous ones, so he just burst in through the door, but as he entered, his heart dropped at what he saw and he knew he'd have to be careful how he proceeded- in front of Bo was the ship's kitchen. He knew Ray would kill him if the kitchen got damaged too much. To Ray, the kitchen was sacred and if Bo caused too much of a mess, Ray wouldn't hesitate to end him.

Bo paused in the doorway where he'd just busted down the door and spoke in a hesitant voice, "I don't suppose you all would consider moving this to the next room." as he pointed to his index fingers to the side with a nervous chuckle. The marines' only response was to draw their weapons; even the chefs picked up knives, pots, or pans as weapons. Bo just dropped his hands and donned a serious expression. "Figures." He then rushed forth in the blink of an eye using a sudden burst of speed while leaving his bow on his back since he didn't want a lot of bloodshed.

He suddenly appeared on a table in front of four of the marines and used his legs to rocket his fist into the face of one, instantly knocking him out. He then rammed his elbow into the face of the man to the right of the one he'd just knocked out, probably breaking his nose, and brought his fist forward again into the face of another. Dodging a sword slash from the fourth, Bo grabbed his arm and used the momentum to toss him over a few tables and into the other three in the room. At this point, the two he'd hit in the face but didn't knock out were starting to recover. Bo turned around and smashed their heads into each other to knock them out.

Turning his attention to the remaining four, he jumped into the air over them and twisted his body midair in order to avoid a series of errant swipes from the weapons they were holding and landed right behind them. He then delivered a devastating roundhouse kick directly to the chin of one with enough force to snap his neck, killing him, and propelling his body into the other three, knocking one to the ground. Bo immediately jumped and drove his foot into the throat of the downed marine, crushing it. He then jumped back avoiding two incoming swings from the two marines left standing and grabbed their wrists. He twisted and delivered a powerful spinning heel kick while holding their wrists to keep them up, if just barely. He then used an axe kick to finish the two of them off.

As he let their bodies drop and started to turn around, Bo was caught off guard by a sword thrust. It barely missed him as he jumped back so that he could size up his new opponent. It was a rather bulky man wearing the standard marine uniform except the sleeves had been torn off exposing his large, muscular arms wielding a cutlass. Bo stepped back to avoid another thrust and couldn't help but think that this man must be stupid to constantly thrust with a cutlass (but hey, easy win right, and Bo wasn't above using this to his advantage). As the marine stepped forward with another thrust, Bo picked up a chair and used it to block, knowing full well the sword would go right through it. When the sword pierced the seat of the chair like he expected, Bo twisted the chair to strain the marine's arm and move it out of the way. Bo then grabbed the man's arm and kicked him in the ribs and pulled down his arm. Using his own grappling skills and the sturdiness of his opponent, Bo kicked his leg over his opponent's arm and in front of his neck and swung around the man's back wrapping his other leg around the back of the man's neck and used his momentum to twist around and sling the larger man into a table causing a broken neck.

After it was all over, Bo looked around slightly irritated by the fact that he'd caused more damage than he'd intended but content with the fact it wouldn't be too difficult to clean up. His thought process, however, was interrupted by one of the marines he thought he'd knocked out struggling to stand back up. Equally irritated by his own mistake and the marine spreading the blood coming from his head wound around, Bo rushed over and mercilessly slammed the marine's head into a window. Letting the body drop again, he walked out of the room; he'd clean up this mess later.

Stopping at one last door, Bo wondered where Leon could be. He could handle whatever was on the other side by himself, but he knew Leon enjoyed fighting more than he did, that's why he got him to help with clearing the ship in the first place.

Putting that aside for the moment, Bo walked right into the room and was immediately frozen. It was the medical ward, but that's not what got him- in front of him was a young girl, probably about 14, with long ebony hair. He was soon brought out of his daze by a sword coming from behind him and embedding itself in the wall beside him. He didn't bother to turn around though; he instantly recognized the blade; Leon was back.


	5. Old Memories and New Beginnings

**Old Memories and New Beginnings**

Keeping his attention on the doctors in front of him, Bo asked Leon, "What took you so long?"

Leon simply responded with a casual, "I was taking out the trash." his grin never leaving his face and his eyes never leaving his new targets.

Bo's demeanor changed at the sight of the young black-haired girl that reminded him so much of not only the little girl that was like a little sister, Marisol, but also his childhood friend that he'd lost long ago. He spoke in probably the most polite voice he could muster under the circumstances, "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to stay on this ship. If you would be so kind as to follow my friend here, he'll escort you off." After a few moments of the doctors looking at Leon with a fear in their eyes due to the animalistic aura he was giving off and the savage look in his eyes, Bo got annoyed that they hadn't complied and cleared his throat. His voice then lost much of its politeness and took on a more forceful tone as he stressed, "Now!" sparking them to shuffle their feet slowly towards the door, still scared of the figure meant to 'usher' them off of the ship, but now even more scared of the reserved fury that was Bo.

As the doctors fearfully moved past Bo and into the hallway with Leon, Bo stuck his arm out blocking the last one, the little girl, from leaving. The doctor in front of her stopped moving forward and turned around with the intent to do something, but was quickly cut off by a sharp glare from Bo causing him to shrink back into the hallway.

Leon simply followed behind the three doctors with his sword resting on his shoulder urging them forward if they slowed down. Leon made sure to go to the back of the ship, where he threw the bodies of the marines he'd taken down earlier to 'drop them off', so that no one else would be able to see what happens. Once there, Leon stood back with his signature grin and told all of the doctors to jump overboard, but they were all too scared to even move, just looking at the water with pure terror in their eyes. Droplets of blood had yet to dissipate completely into the water and because of that sharks were probably on their way to the area.

After a few seconds of nothing, Leon got tired of waiting and let out a sigh before telling them, "Fine, we'll do this one by one. Each of you will have three seconds to jump off or I'll push you off." Before he could continue, he had to quiet down their murmuring: "Shh! You all are gonna need to stay quiet. We wouldn't want anyone else to know you're here now would we?" He then moved his index finger from side to side pointing at the doctors as he resumed what he was saying before: "Now, we'll start with… YOU!" he proclaimed, his finger pointing at an old man, who was probably the head doctor, standing the furthest to the right.

Leon then counted to three, but the old man was still yet to decide, so Leon just stood up and gripped his sword like a baseball bat. With a quick "Batter up" he swung and struck the man with the back of his blade in his neck sending him flying into the ocean. When the old man's body hit the water, one of the other doctors let out a muffled scream that others may have heard before being cut off by Leon's large hand gripping his throat. Leon looked the man in his eyes and told him, "I said no screaming." before throwing him over the edge as well. The final marine stood there and managed to stammer out, "Y-You can't do this, we're-" but was cut off by Leon who responded, "Oh, but I can, see Bo told me too escort you three off 'our' ship. He never said whether you had to be alive when you got off." They were at a standstill for a minute, as Leon savored the moment and the doctor was almost too scared to breath, until Leon realized something. "Damn, I just told you his name. Well, it's not your choice anymore." stated Leon before driving the blade of his sword through the confused marine's neck sending his head into the water below followed shortly thereafter by his body, which Leon was kind enough to throw in as well.

* * *

Once the others had left, Bo closed the door behind them so that he could speak to the young doctor. He knelt down so that they were closer to eye level and was the first to speak, "So, what's your name?"

A little taken aback by the odd question coming from an enemy, the young girl stammered out, "M-my name is R-Rose...Rose Saunders," she then continued in a proud tone, "a doctor from Marine Headquarters."

Bo couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's spirit before asking in a somewhat condescending voice, "So, as a 'doctor from Marine Headquarters', I take it you're not scared of me, right?

"Of course not, I'm a marine, you're just some lowly pirate." responded Rose in a haughty voice, although her yellow eyes betrayed her mouth and showed the true fear she felt at the moment.

"Pirates?" repeated Bo, questioning where she got the idea they were pirates until he thought about it a bit and came to a realization. "Yea, I guess we are pirates." said Bo in a slightly amused voice. He then redirected the focus back on Rose but kept the upbeat tone in his voice, "How old are you anyway, 13? What do you know about pirates?

That question got her over her fear, at least temporarily, and replaced it with anger as she put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest. She then slapped Bo across the face as she started to yell at him: "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to ask a lady her age? And besides, I'm 14; I know that pirates are cruel, merciless monsters that torment the innocent and only care about money."

Bo was starting to like this girl more and more with every passing second. She reminded him so much of his childhood friend who was taken from him so long ago. The passion she spoke with and the sure, almost pig-headed, attitude that what she believed was right was the only option made Bo think that the two would get along well, either that or they'd want to kill each other.

These similarities, though, not only reminded Bo of his old friend, but gave him an idea of how to talk to, and convince, the young Rose of his perspective. However, Bo never liked crushing people's ideals because that's the one thing he respects the most about certain people: that they're willing to stand up for their beliefs. For that reason, Bo decided to simply continue to talk to and learn about Rose, but firstly he thought it would help if she relaxed as opposed to seeing it as an interrogation of sorts, so he got up and asked her to lead him to the captain's quarters.

As they were exiting the room, Leon was turning back down the hallway and coming towards them. He spoke up as he spotted the two coming towards them, "Hey, Bo, I know you like 'em young, but ya really think now's the right time for...that." He waved his index fingers between the two as he finished talking.

Bo just ignored the crude comment and told Rose to do the same. Instead he chose to change the topic and told Leon, "Go up and take over steering from Ray, and turn the ship a little towards the east. There should be an island in that area. We'll stop there to decide how to continue." As he spoke, he could tell that Leon was going to complain, or at least ask why, so he answered him before he could start: "It's been a long night; Ray should fix a quick dinner so we can all go to sleep." He then casually whispered to Leon as he walked by him, "The kitchen's not clean."

Due to their many years of friendship, even though they hadn't really spoken in a few years, Leon knew exactly what that meant: there'd been a fight in the kitchen and blood was spilled with bodies on the floor, possibly more, but Bo didn't get rid of any of it. This left Leon with two choices: clean it himself or let Ray do it and listen to him lecture about how the kitchen is a sacred place. He didn't like either option, but chose to go up on deck and get Ray figuring that with everyone else on board, he'd keep quiet because even though Leon, him, and Bo had experienced fighting and blood, the rest of the people on the island who had experienced it, many of them former pirates, died fighting off the Marines.

As Bo and Rose walked away, Bo waved a hand at Leon and spoke up, "Just tell Ray I'll be in the captain's quarters of the ship."

Once in the room that was formerly occupied by Vice Admiral Tokage, Bo and Rose sat across from each other on very high class red couches separated by a well-crafted coffee table in the center of an extravagant room filled with ornately designed linens and rugs that all seemed to be a bit over the top and centered on the colors of red and gold. Bo couldn't help but to appreciate the design- he himself was partial to the color red- and took note that this was nothing like what he expected the interior of a marine ship to look like, though he had his suspicions that this particular ship and this particular room were just exceptions.

They had continued talking, except now that Rose felt more comfortable with her surroundings and felt reasonably sure that Bo wasn't going to try and harm her she removed her white doctor's coat revealing a yellow sundress, matching her eyes, with a single flower design, stretching from near the bottom and ending in the upper corner, paired with a pair of light brown sandals and started to ask more questions. One such question was seemingly a simple one, "What is your name?" since through all the talking and questions, Bo had yet to actually introduce himself. He debated on whether or not to tell her the truth, but he had already decided that he wanted her to be a member of his crew, since he'd realized that they were now pirates- they didn't have a doctor and would desperately need one with the way Leon fights. So, he decided to go ahead and tell her his real name, Bo Burgess.

Deciding to redirect the conversation away from himself, Bo decided to ask something he'd been curious about for a while now, "How'd someone as young as you come to be stationed at Marine HQ?"

Rose stopped the incessant barrage of questions shooting out of her mouth and thought about his question for a while before answering, "Well, my mother was a marine, but she died giving birth to me so I only know what I've been told about her. But, I was somehow born with the powers of the Devil Fruit that she ate, but the abilities lay dormant for a few years and I was still able to learn how to swim, so Marine scientists wanted to do some tests to find out how it was possible once my powers… 'awakened'."

Bo pondered this for a moment as he thought about what it must have been like for a little girl to basically spend her childhood in a lab being poked and prodded for the sake of research. Yet, she still seemed to be in high spirits and her voice had very little hesitancy behind it when she recalled those times. Still, it made Bo wonder. "After experiencing all of that what made you want to be a doctor and stay with the marines." he asked with a hint of genuine concern in his voice.

Rose's voice was filled with sadness as she answered, "While I was in hospitals and medical wards for tests and other procedures, I saw so many wounded marines come in; they were in such pain." The determination in her voice rose as she continued: "So, I dedicated myself to learn everything about medicine that I could so that I would be able to heal any innocent people in need. I got so good that they stationed me at Marine HQ and put me on a Vice Admiral's ship."

Bo didn't doubt that Rose was a good doctor, with potential to possibly be great even, but he was sure that she was stationed under a Vice Admiral's command for reason(s) that she either wasn't telling or didn't know herself. Either way, from what she'd told him, Bo was able to deduce that Rose had basically been raised by the Marines and knew very little of the reality of the world.

A little annoyed, by his silence, Rose started waving her hand in front of Bo's face. "Hellooooo! Earth to Bo; are you listening?"

Bo was caught off guard; he sometimes got drawn into his own thoughts. He shook his head clear and then spoke to Rose: "You wanted to know about my past, right?"

Rose leaned back and shook her head vigorously as her face was covered with anticipation. Most of her questions before concerned Bo's past and why he became a pirate, but he was very candid and avoided answering most of those questions.

Bo spent the next few minutes telling Rose about his childhood: how his island was often terrorized by pirates and how a group of bandits came and made the mountains and forests of the island their base. He told her about how his mother died only about a year after giving birth to him and he was left to die as an infant since no one in the village had the resources to feed and take care of someone else, until an older boy who was also an orphan decided to raise him even though he knew nothing about raising kids and decided to teach Bo how to survive and became like a big brother to him.

Bo was happy with his 'big brother' even though they were living on such a tumultuous island under such rough conditions. But when Bo was ten years old, his 'brother' left to experience adventure on the open sea. Using everything he learned, Bo gathered together other kids who had lost their parents and more kids joined them for different reasons. He and five others became the best of friends and spent most of their time together fighting and generally causing a ruckus for both the villagers and the mountain bandits that had taken over the island as well as pirates that came across the island and caused trouble.

Bo continued to tell Rose about how he hated the bandits, hated pirates, and even considered possibly becoming a Marine one day, but all of that hatred changed when a certain man, a former pirate, arrived on the island, eliminated the bandits, and offered to train Bo's rag-tag group of friends as well as the other children in the village. From that point on, Bo just wanted to get stronger so that he could protect his friends and was actually happy until the day Marines arrived at the island to apprehend or kill Bo's teacher and the village's savior.

Bo ended his story by informing Rose of how the Marines, who were supposed to protect civilians rampaged through their peaceful town and how he was simply trying to fulfill his master's last wish and escape, but he left out many of the gory details and tried not to demonize the Marines too much because despite everything that had happened, Bo still believed there were good marines- and he wanted to sound at least somewhat objective; he also didn't want to reveal too much about himself just yet or have Rose view him as some sort of monster for his actions.

Rose was stunned to say the least. She was completely speechless as everything she believed in had just been meticulously torn down with the utmost precision in a moment's notice. She had heard the speech and the cannon shots, but innocently assumed that there were only pirates on the island and that the marines were simply trying to eliminate another powerful evil from the world to protect all of the innocents in the world.

As Rose struggled to organize her thoughts and come to grips with everything that had just been laid at her feet, Bo did something surprising: kneeling down in front of her, he lifted her head up and said, "I'm sorry I had to be the one tell you this. But, I'd like you to join my crew. I promise I will always do my best to protect you." Rose looked him in his eyes with a confused and weighty expression on her face. Bo understood and said, "I'm sure you need time to digest all of this and make your decision." Bo then got up to leave, but as he turned around Ray was entering with a hot plate of food that smelled delicious. Ray saw Bo and the young girl that he didn't recognize, but before he could say anything Bo spoke up. "Ray, say 'hi' to our new crewmate. And, just leave the food on the table there for her." He then walked out the door and closed it behind him.


	6. Steeling Resolve

**Steeling Resolve**

Ray laid the food down and turned around to walk out of the room saying hardly a word to Rose in addition to flashing her a friendly smile. As he was closing the door upon leaving, Ray was surprised by a voice off to the side.

Bo was simply leaning against the wall outside the room and spoke without even looking at Ray: "You want to say something to me. What is it?"

"I just want to make sure you're not making a mistake. She's not-"

Ray was cut off by Bo who responded in a somewhat flustered, but forceful, tone: "I know that. I sense a strong will inside of this girl. _She_ has nothing to do with this."

Ray didn't reply verbally. He just looked over at Bo for the first time during their chat. He and Leon both knew what was bothering Bo so much; they lost friends too, but it just hit Bo so much harder. He hardly did anything other than train since that day.

**[Flashback]**

On Todai Island, a lean, young boy, with black hair falling to his shoulders, around the age of 15 is sparring with a stocky, young man that looks to be a bit older, with spiky blond hair in a clearing in the forest. The two went back and forth exchanging blows and weapon strikes until the black-haired boy paused for a moment and said, "Wait, Leon, did you hear that?" Leon, however just continued towards the boy and shouted, "I'm not falling for that, Bo." as he swung his sword towards Bo's midsection. Bo managed to recover in time to block the strike with his metal staff, using his left forearm to reinforce his defense, and hit Leon with a jump kick to the left side of his face knocking him down.

Bo then stuck one of the bladed ends of his staff at Leon's neck as he briefly closed his eyes before speaking: "Some pirates are rioting and destroying the village. We have to do something."

"Well, where's the old man?" asked Leon.

"Master Ming's still not back from his trip. He's supposed to return today." responded Bo.

Leon grumbled before muttering, "Damn old man, it's his fault we've had this problem and he's not even here to deal with it."

Todai Island had always been a place that pirates raided or visited due to its location: it was on the path to the Grand Line and unlike many of the islands around them, it was not affiliated in any way with the World Government, which although they weren't particularly active in this part of the North Blue, many still feared the possible repercussions from the omnipresent power. But, ever since Zande Ming made this island his home, other pirates decided to retire to the quaint island, and that caused an increase in fights and violent action on the island as some of the pirates were a bit rough around the edges, but also because up and coming pirates either didn't believe the rumors or they wanted to make a name for themselves by taking down a pirate who'd traversed the Grand Line before even going there themselves.

"Stop complaining and follow me, besides, it could be fun." remarked Bo before asking, "Where's Ray?"

"That pansy? He spends all his free time cooking."

Bo knew Ray wasn't in the dojo, so he settled that he was already somewhere in the village and asked, "What about Emma?"

Leon once again responded indignantly: "Why would I keep track of your 'girlfriend'?"

Bo merely grumbled at Leon's comment and motioned for Leon to follow him.

Leon began to follow Bo, but first commented, "You don't even care about the twins, huh?"

Bo waved it off and stated, "Those two are always together; they can watch each other's' backs."

Leon and Bo then began to rush towards the village to help end the commotion. Bo knew the rest of their little group wouldn't be too far away. They all had their reasons for fighting- enjoyment, protect the village, protect their loved ones, or simply... an escape from reality- but each of them were among the best fighters on the entire island and they worked to maintain the peace.

On their way, Leon grabbed a man, who was running away from the scene, by the collar and asked him what was going on. The man hurriedly explained that the visiting pirates had gotten drunk and rowdy, but the real problems started when some of them lost money in a poker game and accused old 'Calico' Jack (a retired pirate) of cheating. A bar fight ensued and it soon spread throughout the village due to how big the pirate crew was. A smirk came onto Leon's face as he contemplated all of the people he'd get to fight.

Once they neared the primary fighting, they both immediately saw Ray fighting off a number of pirates using two kitchen knives. Bo also thought he heard Emma somewhere nearby, but before he could make a move, he and Leon were overrun by attacking pirates. Leon smiled widely at all the lambs just running to the slaughter. Bo meanwhile was deftly avoiding gunshots and sword slashes while trying to make it over to Emma. Bo knew she was a more than capable fighter, but he was most protective of her.

Bo and Leon managed to whittle down the waves of enemy pirates after a while as many of them became somewhat hesitant to approach the duo. The momentary lapse in constant fighting allowed Bo to finally search out Emma. She was surrounded by a large number of big, burly men and her baseball cap had fallen off allowing her ebony hair to flow freely. Still though, she was managing to hold off and take down many of the pirates. She was slightly more agile than Bo, and unlike most of the others, she learned how to effectively use almost any weapon as opposed to mastering just one. This combination made her capable of ducking under weapons, jumping over enemies, and making slight movements to avoid bullets, swords, and spears, all while taking the pirates' weapons and using them to stab, slash, and shoot the oncoming horde. But, judging by her location on the battlefield, she had likely been fighting longer than the rest of the group and consequently she looked as if she was beginning to tire and the mob of pirates could soon overrun her by sheer numbers alone.

From where he was, Bo could see that Emma clearly outclassed the sloppy pirates as a fighter, but their pride wouldn't let them back down from a female, much less a teenage girl. So, she wouldn't get even a moments rest like he and Leon, and possibly Ray, were briefly afforded.

Bo tried to move forward to help Emma, but as soon as he made a move that way, it seemed as if the battle closed in around him. Now, in order to get to Emma, he'd have to fight all of these pirates, and to top it off, he still had no clue as to where Taylor and Tyler, the twins, were. It was getting worse and worse with every passing moment.

Ray was backed into a corner just the way he liked it; if he could see them he could beat them and no one could attack from behind. Leon was surrounded swinging his sword like a wild man seemingly with no direction whatsoever, but he knew exactly what he was doing. Wide, sweeping arcs so no one could get close, yet he was able to put all his strength behind every swing. Meanwhile, Bo was making little headway as even more pirates swarmed off of the three galleon ships sitting in the bay. Bo jumped back to beside Leon and shouted, "I need to get closer! I need your help."

Leon looked to him and asked, "You want to do that?" When Bo nodded his head, Leon swung his sword in a circle around him to create room and proceeded to lower his center of gravity while spinning his sword by its handle like a baton, switching it from hand to hand so that the blade began to act like a buzz saw and would cut down anything in its path.

After clearing the pirates closest to Leon's back, Bo jumped onto Leon's shoulders and crouched to gather strength and energy in his legs as Leon ran forward carving a path through the pirates. Once Leon got to a mass of pirates too large to cut through, Bo jumped high into the air and forward over the pirates, though some tried to reach him with their swords. What worried Bo, though, was the fact that, even from his position above the chaos, he could no longer see Emma.

He came down spinning his staff so fast that the blades at each end of the staff cut down anyone unlucky enough to be below him as he screamed, "**Dive Bomb**". Once he'd cleared a landing spot, he stabbed one end of his staff into the ground and used it to balance and spin himself to deliver powerful kicks to anyone within range. Finally, he twisted his body in the air, pulling his staff out of the ground in the process, and made a final sweeping swing at the farthest distance his staff could reach before landing safely on the ground.

Bo hated using that move because of how sore it made his legs from concentrating so much strength and energy into a single point, but it soon paid off as after taking down a few more pirates, Bo was right next to Emma. But…Emma was lying on the ground, beaten. She was heavily wounded and bleeding profusely, just barely clinging to life as a large pirate who seemed far stronger than the others lumbered above her ready to bring his sword down to deliver the finishing blow, but before he could, Bo delivered a flying kick to the man's ribs knocking him away.

The man quickly stood up and glared at Bo. "First I have to step in because my men can't take down a little girl;" he said as he sent a chilling glare to each of his crew standing around causing them to shrink back before continuing, "now I'm bothered by another brat?" he finished, once again glaring at Bo.

Bo gripped his staff tighter as he snarled, "You did this?" motioning towards Emma's battered body. "You'll pay."

"Oh? What can a brat like you do against a man with a 30 million beli bounty?" boasted the pirate captain, with a wicked grin.

Bo responded by charging and jumping at the much bigger man delivering a powerful downwards swing, but was easily tossed back by the powerful pirate showing that trying to overpower the large man would prove fruitless. This left Bo with only speed, but due to his sore legs, Bo couldn't run around the pirate captain and attack his blind spots so he opted to attack with a flurry of thrusts aimed at the pirate's midsection and head. He caused a number of cuts and scratches, but the experienced pirate deflected any serious strikes and pushed Bo off of him.

Before Bo could launch another attack, the pirate jumped forward with surprising agility and used a variety of attacks to try and finish Bo. It took everything Bo had just to defend against the onslaught, and with the burning sensation in his legs, he wasn't sure he'd be able to get out of the way.

As the pirate launched a final downward swing of his sword, Bo readied himself and only managed to survive the strike due to the staff being made of highly resilient wapometal.

Before the pirate captain could deliver another powerful strike, he was distracted as two of his ships were suddenly cut in half by a massive air wave. Bo couldn't help but express relief as he released a deep breath and muttered, "Master Ming is back."

At this, the pirate captain towering over Bo was visibly shaken and paused before asking, "The Zande Ming?" Bo's knowing nod and arrogant smile told him all he needed to know. He'd heard that Zande Ming was on this island, but he didn't believe such a powerful pirate was actually in this part of the North Blue. He just figured the few who told the tales were weak and delusional.

After regaining himself, the pirate captain ordered his men to get back to the remaining ships just as Ming docked a ways away and began moving towards the commotion.

Bo's relief was short lived, though, as he finally spotted Taylor and Tyler for the first time during this whole ordeal. Unfortunately, the twins were peeking out over the railing of the pirates' main ship. Bo figured they took out a few before deciding this would be time to make a quick buck. Those two usually avoided direct conflict if there was something greater to be achieved, usually money and gold to be stolen.

It was too far a drop from the large ship to the ground to land without injury (they were too self-absorbed to willingly put themselves in a situation where they thought harm was probable) and neither had learned how to swim so they were stuck. Bo looked around for Ray and Leon, but they were too far away leaving only Bo.

He ignored the pain in his legs and ran after the pirates, cutting down all in his path, to save his friends. He continued getting closer to the ships, but was stopped by an unexpected elbow and fist simultaneously hitting his face. He was knocked back and struggled to stand on his burning legs- they desperately needed a break- as numerous pirates ran past him, some over, while punching and kicking him as payback. He was just lucky they were in too much of a hurry to actually take the few seconds necessary to stop and kill him. With the pirates constantly pushing him back down, Bo was unable to stand up, much less continue forward. Once they were all past and Bo could get up, he could only look on as the remaining two ships sailed away and he saw his friends cornered by the pirates attempting to talk their way out.

In the following days, the village returned to normal shortly afterwards as people healed up thankful that no civilians had been injured, but for Bo, it would never be normal again- two of his best friends, family, had been taken away on the pirates' ship and were probably dead. Making matters worse, Emma died shortly thereafter from the injuries she sustained in battle.

**[Present Time]**

Bo looked up and at Ray for the first time since they had started speaking and sounded remorseful as he spoke. "Hey Ray... what if I said it did have something to do with that? Would you leave me to deal with all of this on my own?"

Ray stopped and looked Bo in the eyes as he said, "You know I'll always have your back-me and Leon both. We owe our lives to you." Ray looked toward Bo for a bit longer to make sure he understood then turned around and started walking away.

When Bo thought Ray was out of earshot, he whispered, "Thanks." and let a small smile come across his lips. He was truly thankful for such great friends, but honestly, he figured Leon would stay if only for the promise of bloodshed and fighting.

Once that word escaped Bo's mouth, Ray stopped and asked in a low voice, "What's your goal?"

Bo simply responded, "...Revenge."

Ray could only shake his head before saying, "Be sure to dig two graves."

There was a short pause as Bo pushed himself off of the wall and started walking in the opposite direction of Ray as he muttered, "Gladly."


	7. Trouble on Board

**Trouble On Board**

The next day after everyone had had a chance to sleep, Bo sat atop the front cannon of the huge battleship meditating while Rose went around checking everyone's wounds, though none were serious, and patched them up so they could heal quicker. At the same time, she asked everyone if they knew what had happened to the other marines that were on the ship with her before they arrived to which none of the passengers knew the answer- in fact, none of them even knew there had been marines on the ship. Rose decided not to ask Bo since he looked somewhat distant, not even responding to the falcon that stood perched on his shoulder, and she was still a bit frightened by the air Leon had about him, leaving only Ray. After she finished with her brief check-ups of the people accompanying Bo, Leon, and Ray, Rose went up to the helm of the ship, where Ray had resumed guiding the ship, and asked him.

Ray looked down at her and saw her bright and curious expression and decided to answer. He let out a sigh before speaking: "Regrettably, we are pirates and they were marines. Bo couldn't allow them to stay on this ship, so he was forced to _put them overboard_." Seeing the somewhat despondent expression on Rose's face, Ray continued with a small smile, "They should have been headed towards Todai Island where we left." He wasn't lying. There corpses were more than likely headed that way, though the chances of them reaching Todai Island even if they were alive was slim.

With everyone else occupied and nothing to do since the ocean was calm at the moment and Ray had taken over the helm once again, Leon was bored and decided to wander around the ship. Eventually, he came across a stairway that descended into the deepest recesses of the ship and, intrigued, decided to venture down them. Once at the bottom, he was enveloped in darkness and struggled to find a light source. Once he had, he got a good look at his surroundings for the first time. What he saw surprised him: rows of cells, many with prisoners. He'd come across the ship's jail.

Walking down the rows, Leon clicked his sword against all of the cages to get every prisoner's attention. As he moved, many of the prisoners began whispering and conversing about the new face on the ship. What's more, he wasn't dressed like a marine of any rank.

Leon took this time to look at all the prisoners. None of them looked to be in too bad of shape meaning the Marines either took adequate care of their prisoners or, more likely, they hadn't actually been down here for that long- a month or two at the most. The prisoners varied in size- some were slender and looked rather weak, while others were rippling with muscles- as well as age, ranging from late teens to a couple of old men as old as Old Man Ming if not older. One thing that caught Leon's eye was that some prisoners had just been thrown in a cell while most, presumably the stronger ones, were restrained further with cuffs or even chains restraining them to the wall. This excited Leon greatly as it meant that he just might be able to have some real fun.

Once he had walked past every cell, ignoring the mumblings and grumblings, Leon raised his voice and commanded all of the prisoners to quiet the chatter. Eventually it quieted down and Leon spoke again, this time with a question: "Who wants out of here?" He shouted loud enough that everyone in this part of the ship could hear him. The resulting roar shook the ship as the holding area was filled with the eager shouts of the many prisoners awaiting their eventual release.

Leon could only laugh at the unbridled clamoring of these people at the mere possibility of release. He then motioned for them to quiet down enjoying the control he had over all of these helpless prisoners, before declaring, "I guess I should get the keys."

He smiled as he turned around and exited the room to the hoots and hollers of various prisoners to get the keys from the other side of the doorway. Once he had the key- the Marines conveniently used only one lock for all of the cells on the ship- he returned to the holding area and took a moment to savor the thankful and begging pleas.

As he approached the first cell, his attention was caught by one cell at the end of the row. There was no noise coming from within; no shouts or pleas, nothing. Leon wouldn't have cared except for the fact that he knew there was a prisoner in that cell from his earlier walkthrough. The concept of someone who wouldn't want to be free puzzled him. So, just as the key was already halfway in the lock, Leon withdrew it and proceeded to the quiet cell, much to the audible frustration and anger of the inhabitant of the cell he was already at.

Leon ignored the surrounding protests as he approached the cell. He leaned on the bars and looked at the prisoner, though because he was sitting back in the shadows Leon could only see the whites of the prisoner's eyes hauntingly looking back at him from the darkness, before speaking: "Hey, don't you want out of there?" he shouted to the cell's inhabitant.

The person in the cell simply shrugged, which only served to frustrate Leon.

Leon responded, though, in a surprisingly calm manner, simply growling, "Oh, so ya wanna spend the rest of your miserable life trapped in a cage?"

This time the person responded and Leon could tell by the voice, it was a man in the cell: "No, I simply have nothing left to live for out there."

This comment upset Leon. He had struggled to live almost every day since he was very young: stealing, hunting, and fighting to survive. It got to the point where he anticipated, almost enjoyed the daily grind, only smiling when he was fighting someone or had killed an animal or opponent. After all those years struggling, it angered him greatly to hear someone just give up. Leon put the key into the cell door and flung it open, almost ripping it off the hinges. "If that's how ya feel, stand up and get out here so I can end yer misery." he commanded.

The man complied and walked into the light outside of the cage allowing Leon to see what he looked like for the first time. The man was shorter than Leon, a bit under 6'0, with an athletic physique. He was wearing all black: a vest that seemed to have extra padding, presumably to stop bullets, a regular pair of pants, and combat boots. The most distinguishing features, however, were three fresh scars that ran down the left side of his face stopping at the edge of his mouth and his cold, black eyes that made the whites of his eyes so prevalent to the point that they appeared to be almost glowing.

Leon then mockingly asked, "Oh, so ya do wanna die?"

The man responded in a flat tone, "Today is not the day of my death."

Leon growled once again, this time at the man's arrogance, as he pulled his sword back and muttered, "We'll see about that." before swinging his sword at full force with every intention of cutting the man in half at the waist, leaving him to die on the cold floor, then returning to his games with the other prisoners.

"Stop!" came a commanding shout from the doorway where the stairs were. Leon had already begun his swing, though, and was unable to completely stop the momentum of his swing. His sword had hit the man, but thanks to Leon attempting to halt his swing and the thick mass of muscle, bone, and flesh of the prisoner, the sword only dug into the man's hip, and possibly chipped his pelvis or hip bone, but didn't do any further damage aside from drawing some blood, though not enough to warrant serious concern.

Leon turned to the doorway and saw Bo slowly approaching him and the man his sword was in. "Why'd ya stop me? I was trying to help out this lil' punk." Leon complained to Bo as he motioned towards the man in black.

Bo looked Leon in the eyes and asked, "Would you really be happy killing a man while he's handcuffed?"

Leon responded in an off-handed manner: "I've settled for weaklings all day today, what's one more?

Bo was now looking at the prisoner as he spoke to Leon. "This man interests me. Where we're going they'll be plenty of strong opponents for you to fight; let this one slide, will ya?" Leon grunted and reached for his sword until Bo stopped him. "That sword is all that's stopping him from bleeding heavily onto the floor of our ship, and I have some questions I want to ask before I let that wound be treated." Bo then looked directly into the eyes of the man and whispered, "I suggest you answer quickly; that sword is old and the wound might get infected."

The rest of the prisoners grew rowdy at hearing these two were now in charge of this marine ship and the two, themselves, were clearly not marines. They shouted and pleaded for freedom with renewed vigor.

All of the noise annoyed Bo, so he looked around him and glared at each prisoner in sight while speaking in a commanding tone: "Shut up. None of you weaklings are going free".

The murmurs settled from raucous screams to disgruntled protests, essentially silencing all but one voice. That one person spoke in a deep, resounding voice: "I am no weakling. I'm stronger than all of you."

Though Bo was easygoing, he didn't like being openly challenged. He walked over to the cell the man was in and saw a massive figure with stringy, brown hair with a full beard and numerous scars all over his body, as well as one over his right eye resulting in that eye just being milky white and unusable, sitting in the back of the cell with his beefy arms behind his back and numerous chains wrapped around his muscular form. "You know that's funny seeing as you're in there and we're out here." Bo mocked as he leaned on the bars of the cell.

"You dare mock ME!? I am 'The Human Warship' Tank Calderall worth 90 million beli. Let me out of here and I'll crush you." yelled the prisoner, Tank.

Bo pretended to be cleaning out his ear with his pinky before responding, "Oh, I'm sorry. All I heard was _'let' you_ out. You see, I'm in control." He then turned towards Leon and the stranger in black. "You're lucky. Leon, get your sword. You, get out of our way; I'll deal with you later." He turned back to Tank in the cell and smiled before finishing his commands to the other two. "You better not bleed all over my ship. And Leon... bring the key." He grinned slyly as he said those last words, as did Tank figuring he knew what Bo was planning.

Leon then went to pick up the key and pulled his sword out of the other man who then moved towards the doorway seemingly ignoring the blood he was losing as his hands were still cuffed behind his back. Bo noticed that through all of this, the mystery man didn't budge or wince, which piqued Bo's interest even more, but that would have to wait till later.

As Leon handed the key to Bo, he asked, "What are you planning?"

Bo took the key and casually responded, "You wanted to have some fun, didn't you?" as he unlocked the cell door.

Leon recognized the state of mind Bo was in. He wasn't like this often, but when he was… He would have let the Devil himself out of that cell if it meant he'd have a chance at him, but Leon didn't care about all that at the moment. He was finally going to have some real fun with a worthy opponent for the first time in far too long- at least he hoped to- so, he just smirked and shrugged off any further questions in anticipation of what was to come.

Bo moved into the cell while Leon stood off to the side. Leon could hear locks being undone and heavy chains falling to the floor. He focused on those sounds until he felt the air blow by him and he looked in that direction only to see Bo crash into the cells on the opposite side and fall to the floor as he heard another mass of chains crash onto the floor.

Bo lifted his head and wiped some blood from the side of his mouth as he spoke. "Impressive. That punch almost hurt. But, I hope that's not the best you can do; or has your time behind bars affected you that much." He mocked from his seated position on the floor much to the annoyance of his opponent who was stepping out of the cell prompting Leon to jump back a little.

As Tank pulled himself out of the confining cell, Bo and Leon got a good look at just how massive he was. Tank's figure was nothing short of imposing at around 10' of solid muscle with large, powerful arms and legs wearing only a pair of red pants and stained brown combat boots with plain metal bands around his wrist leaving his wide, muscled chest exposed. As soon as he was out, Tank lumbered forward and drove his closed left fist down upon Bo: **"War Hammer."**

Leon swung his sword up with as much force as he could muster to counter the strike and managed to cut Tank's massive, tree-trunk sized arm clean off just above the elbow, but the monster of a man spun around and backhanded Leon with his remaining arm into the cells, before he could even bring up a defense, as if nothing had happened and caused Leon to spit up blood.

Bo jumped to the side as Tank brought his boot down where Bo was. The earlier cheap shot from Tank did more damage than Bo was letting on, but he wasn't about to admit that to himself or his opponent. "You annoying little ant! If I had my bazookas you'd be dust at the bottom of my shoe." yelled Tank as he glared at Bo.

"The fight's barely started and you're already making excuses?" Bo retorted in the same mocking tone he'd been speaking to Tank in.

At the same time, Leon pushed himself off of the bars he'd been smashed into and stood up, but his left arm just hung by his side unresponsive. Still, though, he smirked as he looked at the large man standing between him and Bo and said, "Oh, this just might be more fun than I can handle."


	8. Clash on the Calm Sea

**Clash on the Calm Sea**

Bo and Leon looked on at their opponent standing between them. This was the brief calm before the storm. Bo had let his pride get the best of him and allow him to free this giant of a man from his holdings. Now here they were preparing to see who was stronger: the experienced pirate worth 90 million beli or the two upstart pirates trained by a man worth 250 million beli.

Bo and Leon made the first move as they charged towards Tank attempting a two pronged attack; Tank would have no way to avoid it. Leon started his attack first as he swung his sword from across his body aiming for Tank's midsection, but Tank grabbed Leon's wrist with his remaining arm before the blade even got close to him and swung Leon around and into Bo.

Bo jumped up and avoided his partner, leaving Leon to crash into the cells there, and jumped forward launching a straight fist that connected cleanly to the side of Tank's head. He followed that up by twisting his body and landing a back kick in nearly the same spot.

Seemingly unfazed by the two blows to the head, Tank threw Leon at Bo, who caught him, and then lunged forward with a strong punch of his own. In order to avoid the strike, Bo dropped Leon and ducked under the massive arm aimed at him. He then unleashed a flurry of quick punches into Tank's abdomen. Tank tried to counter with a knee at such close range, but Bo timed a jump perfectly and springboarded off of Tank's knee and did a backflip, kicking Tank in the chin in the process.

With Bo out of his immediate range, Tank noticed Leon still in front of him and tried to kick him while he was down, but Leon caught Tank's leg. Bo then ran and jumped off of Leon's back and drove his elbow into Tank's face with enough force to take advantage of his imbalance, thanks to Leon holding his leg, and knock him down, creating a number of cracks in the floor of the ship.

Leon then stepped back to grab his sword as Bo delivered another punch to Tank's face for good measure. But the fight wasn't over yet. As the two looked on, Tank rose from the floor wiping rubble off of himself and preparing to continue, seemingly unaffected by the myriad of blows he'd taken thus far: a few bruises and some blood coming from his nose, but nothing major.

Leon rushed forward attempting to catch Tank off guard and began trying to slice him up, but Tank with all of his experience was able to recover and deflect many of the slices aimed at him with the metal bands on his wrist. As the onslaught continued, Leon was only able to land a few minor scratches only adding to the multitude that already adorned Tank's large arms and torso.

Seeing as he wasn't getting anywhere, Leon jumped back in preparation of one final attack. He put both hands on the handle of his sword for the first time and raised it above his head. Leon was planning to use one powerful downward slash to turn this fight around. If Tank tried to block this one with the bands around his wrists, Leon was sure they'd break upon impact and Tank would have no defense left.

However, Tank understood this as well and prepared to defend in a different manner. When Leon swung the blade down towards Tank's chest and shoulders, Tank solidly clamped the blade between his palms with enough strength to stop the sword instantly and shake the blade. Leon was surprised at the turn of events as he'd never considered this outcome.

Bo, wanting to take advantage of the distraction, came from behind Leon to attack Tank. But, Tank saw him approaching and twisted his hands to throw the sword, and subsequently its owner, out of his way as he prepared to counter Bo. Bo, however, was too quick as he jumped towards Tank and connected with a flying kick followed by a roundhouse to the ribs as he contorted his body in the air.

Bo then jumped back before pushing off the ground and driving his fist into the center of Tank's torso, the solar plexus, with enough force to actually cause the huge man to stumble backwards, noticeably affected for the first time in this fight. Tank, though, recovered quickly and used his superior reach to hit Bo in the back with a hammer fist that sent him shuddering to the ground.

As Bo struggled to his feet, he heard Tank mutter, **"Cannon Fist"**. Bo barely managed to get his arms up in time to guard as Tank's huge fist came barreling towards him. As the fist made contact with his guard, Bo was barely able to maintain his defense as he felt his arms nearly break under the immense strength of his opponent. But, he couldn't relax yet as Tank continued forth with a barrage of powerful blows. Bo gritted his teeth through the pain and took small steps backwards as many of the punches crashed directly into his arms while others managed to bounce off his abs, shoulders, and even the top of his head at times. Luckily for Bo, though, none of the punches that got around his guard were able to connect cleanly due to him twisting his body with the punches to reduce the damage he took. If they had landed squarely, Bo would likely have been finished.

When the barrage finally let up, Bo saw Tank preparing for another Cannon Fist and knew this might be his only chance. Tank spoke to Bo, "I'm impressed that you're still standing; that first punch alone would shatter the bones of a normal man. But, you won't survive another." Bo recognized the truth in Tank's words, and although he was still staggering on his feet, Bo gathered up every bit of strength he had left and just as Tank threw the punch, Bo ducked underneath it in similar fashion as before and moved closer to Tank. Tank smirked at this action figuring he had Bo now. He moved his arm back towards himself in order to hit Bo in the back with his forearm.

However, Bo, as if predicting the move, back flipped over Tank's incoming arm then used it as a step to lift himself up with more force as he sent an uppercut directly into Tank's chin and followed it up with a powerful punch directly to the center of his face in order to finish the fight.

But, the punch wasn't as effective as Bo would have hoped and only managed to daze the monster of a man as he soon steadied himself and prepared to deliver yet another devastating punch to Bo. Meanwhile, Bo could only stand and watch as Tank readied for a finishing blow. His body had been beaten and battered throughout this fight to such an extent that it was taking nearly all he had merely to stand, and he knew that dodging would be out of the question.

When Tank was ready to deliver what he was sure would be the finishing blow, he did so with a yell: **"Cannon Fist!"** Surely enough, Bo was unable to move out of the way as he watched the fist approach him. The only thing he could manage to do was just lift up his arms with his left palm facing out in front of him.

Tank was perplexed as his strongest punch was just stopped and was only able to push the much smaller Bo back a short ways. Now it was Bo's turn to smirk as he used Tank's momentary confusion to push his arm down. He then ran up Tank's arm and landed a devastating knee on his face while Leon used his arm to chop the back of Tank's leg. The two combined blows sent Tank crashing down to the floor and created an even bigger dent in the floorboards as hundreds of wood splinters flew up and the floor itself threatened to give out.

Kneeling on Tank's face and chest, Bo moved the knee he'd attacked with away from Tank's face and placed his left palm there instead. Bo yelled, **"Impact!"** as the impact dial he had hidden under his glove released all of the energy it absorbed from Tank's punch back at him at point blank range, which combined with all of the other blows that had accumulated damage to his head, was enough to finally knock the massive man unconscious.

Bo stood up and scoffed before muttering, "We hijacked one warship and took down another" as he looked down over his fallen enemy.

Leon walked up with his sword resting on his right shoulder and clapped Bo on the back, eliciting a wince of pain, before asking, "We good?"

Bo responded with a somewhat pained, "Yeah" before continuing, "You know, it's a shame; if he hadn't pissed me off, I would have asked him to join the crew. What were you doing, anyway?"

"I was letting you have your fun, besides he was probably da Captain of his own crew anyway." retorted Leon.

"So what? He couldn't still have a crew; he's been in here. His crew's either dead or in here too."

At that point a shaky voice spoke from a nearby cell: "Actually, he took on an entire Marine squadron so his crew could escape."

Bo thought about that and responded almost immediately. "Heh. I definitely would have asked him to join then." he said before giving a shrug and finishing, "Oh well." as he walked away.

Leon asked Bo as he walked away, "What do you want me to do with him." pointing his sword at the unconscious Tank, but Bo just said, "Whatever you want. I'm through with him." as he continued towards the stairs.

As he neared the doorway, Bo noticed the prisoner that was with Leon earlier, specifically the wound on his hip that he was unable to cover due to being handcuffed. Bo called over for Leon to toss him the keys and then spoke to the prisoner: "You're still here? Why didn't you go get that wound looked at?"

"You two put on a good show. Besides, I think you need a doctor more than me." responded the prisoner.

Bo shifted uncomfortably due to his injuries as he caught the keys from Leon and turned to the man in black and retorted, "This? This is nothing; just a bruise." He then began to ascend the stairs with the other man close behind.

After walking in silence for a minute, the former prisoner broke the silence by asking Bo, "Why'd you stop him?"

Bo was taken aback by the sudden question, but after thinking about it and realizing the man was talking about what happened between him and Leon, Bo asked his own question: "What would you have done if I hadn't?"

"Die." came the matter-of-fact, emotionless reply.

"That's why. I've only met a few people who could keep from reacting when Leon swung at them; even fewer who knew not doing so would mean certain death."

"That still doesn't answer my question." stated the man, still in a calm, flat tone.

That reply frustrated Bo, but he kept his emotions in check and continued: "You interest me; I want you to join my crew."

The man was actually amused by Bo's simplicity of the matter and responded, "You don't even know me, and I don't know you."

"Okay, I'm Bo and I saved your life. Now it's your turn. What's your name and why were you in the cells on this ship?"

The man looked at Bo; Bo hadn't turned around once during this conversion as he walked up the stairs. "You forgot to mention it was your friend that was going to kill me." he said curtly before adding, "Anyway, my name's Mage; I picked a fight on this ship and lost." At Mage's last statement, Bo turned around for the first time and had a slight smirk on his face.

Bo then turned back around and regained his usual composure before asking, "Why did Leon try to kill you? Bo could sense Mage's hesitancy in answering, so he added, "Remember, Leon could also tell me, but...if I'm forced to ask him then I'll be upset."

At the added urging, Mage gave in and answered, "I'd accepted my fate."

Bo mulled over those words. If he had been talking about the scene with Leon, Bo could understand, but before that, he was simply in a cell and being offered freedom- however fake the offer; that was a bit early to be 'accepting fate'. Bo let his feelings be known: "Maybe I should've let Leon kill you. You don't just give up and stop fighting even when there is absolutely no other option."

Mage was a reserved person and wouldn't have bothered to say something under most circumstances, but right now, in this younger man's presence, he felt compelled to defend himself, but the best he could come up with was "I have nothing left to live for."

Bo lost his normally calm composure, swung around immediately and slammed his fist into the wall as he stared straight into Mage's eyes and shouted, "Then find something else! There's always a reason to live on!" Sensing hesitation, Bo let out a deep breath before grabbing Mage's collar and pulling him close: "Make your goal to serve me, then, until you find one of your own." commanded Bo in a low whisper as he continued to stare into Mage's eyes.

Even though he was older, Mage struggled to maintain eye contact under the heat of Bo's intense gaze and almost lost his balance as Bo released his collar and pushed him back.

Bo then turned around resumed his ascent up the stairs. After a brief moment, Mage followed suit and they continued to the main deck in silence.


	9. Land, Ho!

**Land, HO!**

Once the two reached the door to the main deck, Bo opened it and the two were met by the curious stares of everyone on board. After a minute of silence, Ray was the first to speak, leaning over the wheel on the top deck. "What happened down there?" he asked in an exasperated tone as if just contemplating the answer was tiring.

"I'll tell you later. Right now, where's Rose? He needs to get that wound patched up." Bo managed to rasp out, though pain was evident in his voice, as he pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards Mage.

Ray ignored the evident pain his friend was in as well as the question as he asked, "And who is 'he'?" But before Bo could get a word out, Ray held up his palm to stop him and continued, "Let me guess; he's our new-"

"Aah! G-get away from him, he's a killer." Ray was cut off by Rose's terror- filled shout.

Bo and Ray both looked at her with confused looks as Mage gave a light chuckle before saying, "You're the one that gave me this scar." while motioning towards the scar on his face with his shoulder.

"He attacked this ship earlier." declared Rose as she pointed an accusatory finger at Mage.

Mage just shrugged it off: "Eh, I'm through with that now, though."

At that statement, Rose jumped in front of Mage's face and began arguing with him. They went back and forth about Mage's past actions until Bo stepped in between and held them apart. "Listen, the past is the past. We're on the same side now and should help each other out." Bo stated, the authority in his voice silencing everyone else.

"I never said I would join you." Rose reminded Bo as she stomped her foot and turned around.

Bo looked at Rose with a softened expression: "Then… as a doctor, can you really just leave him with that wound?"

Rose seemed to be struggling with an internal conflict until she caved and went to help Mage, but she was interrupted by Ray who piped up to ask Bo, "What about you; you look to be in worse shape than him."

Bo looked up to where Ray was, and stated through gritted teeth due to the pain he was feeling, "I'm fine; I'm just bruised..." he paused before finishing "everywhere."

Rose quickly ran to her office to get what she needed to stop the bleeding and sew the wound on Mage's hip closed. As she was leaving, Bo introduced Mage to Ray before looking Mage in the eyes. "I assume you've eaten a Devil's Fruit because of the seastone cuffs; what ability did it give you?"

"It'd be simpler to show you." was the simple response.

Bo smirked as he pulled out the key preparing to unlock Mage's cuffs, but was interrupted by Ray asking if he was sure and the loud protests of Rose, who had just arrived back on deck. Bo looked up and gave them a brief reply- "Relax, he's on our side."- as he looked Mage in the eyes to reinforce his words and to silently warn Mage of what would happen if he tried anything.

Bo then let the keys enter the cuffs and shortly thereafter the cuffs fell to the ground with an audible _clank_ and after briefly rubbing his wrists, which were sore from their confines, Mage held his hands down and a mist of light bluish tint emanated from his hands rapidly engulfing the entire deck before suddenly dissipating. The civilians on board just gawked on as Mage used his Devil Fruit ability having never seen something like it, but after a short while Bo finished talking to Mage, whispering, "We'll talk later.", and left so that Rose could treat him.

Rose immediately got to work stopping the bleeding and sewing the wound shut while keeping a wary eye on him, afraid he might try to attack her. She then moved to help Bo, who had affixed himself back to his position atop the front triple cannon. As she worked on him, the falcon from before, which had apparently been sitting on top of the main mast, flew back down and landed on Bo's shoulder. Bo just smiled at the bird and, much to Rose's surprise, started talking to it. She couldn't make out exactly what Bo was saying because he was speaking so low, but shortly after he finished, the large bird flew off of his shoulder and into the distance.

Rose finished up what she could do but pleaded with Bo to come with her to the medical ward because he had at least three broken ribs and fractured bones in his arms as well as swelling and bruising all over.

Bo ignored her at first as he seemed to be meditating and then waved her off saying it could wait before shouting up to the helm at Ray: "Ray turn the ship a bit to the East; we're only about an hour away."

Rose finally ended up settling for giving Bo some medicine that would help alleviate the pain in the short term and by the time she had finished Leon was just stepping out from the doorway with numerous bruises from his role in the skirmish with the monstrous Tank. Rose went to help him, her duty as a doctor outweighing the fear she held of Leon's malicious aura at the moment, but Leon waved her off saying, "I'm fine. Jus' dislocated my shoulder, and I already took care of that."

Rose shrunk back from Leon's insidious grin, but was visibly upset that no one was listening to her. As the doctor, they were supposed to follow her orders on matters regarding health. Seeing this, Ray jumped down from behind the wheel, confident that the ship would maintain course in the calm weather. He stood by Rose, placing a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Don't worry, those two are hardheaded about injuries; they always think it can wait or if they can still move it's not too serious." he said in a comforting tone as he crouched beside her. "You two," he said in a stern voice that most people had never heard him use, now talking to Bo and Leon, "this here is our doctor. You will listen to her and do exactly as she says, got it?"

Leon grumbled in response while Bo looked at Ray and said, "I thought I was the captain." but both were quickly silenced by a sharp glare from Ray and got up to move to the medical ward of the ship.

Ray looked down at Rose once again and smiled: "There you go; two obedient patients."

A few minutes later, in the medical room, Rose was busy bandaging her two 'patients'. Leon had actually made it through the fight with only some bruises and a dislocated shoulder, which he had already popped back into place just as he said, so Rose just wrapped some bandages around his shoulder and sent him on his way. Bo, however, was in far worse condition. Rose put a cast on each of his forearms to protect the already fractured and bruised bones, though Bo demanded that he still be able to move his hands and fingers with full range, so the casts looked like extra thick gauntlets on his arms from his wrists to just below the elbow. While she was wrapping bandages around his chest and torso- using extra padding over the broken ribs- Bo asked Rose why she was afraid of Mage if she was the one who gave him the big scar on his face.

"Well since Zoans kinda have a mind of their own and I inherited my Devil Fruit, I can't actually control it." she hesitantly answered, embarrassed by the fact that she couldn't control her own powers. Seeing the look on Bo's face she continued: "It just sort of activates when I'm really scared or really angry and I don't remember what happened at all."

"What about your hybrid form?" Bo asked.

"For some reason. it's difficult for me to willfully tap into my powers, and when I try to hard I usually end up losing control completely." she stammered out her reply, her back almost completely turned to Bo by now, but she was broken out of her self-pity by Bo's voice with an unusually warm tone that she'd only heard from him when he asked her to join his crew.

"What if I helped you to learn to control your ability… and also taught you some moves without it? But, I'm going to warn you now, I'm not the easiest teacher."

Rose turned back around and faced him, tears welling in her eyes. She wiped her face with her arm before speaking, "Really? That'd be wonderful."

"But you'd have to join my crew first." Bo added with a smile, but before Rose could reply they were both flung off balance as the large ship suddenly jerked to the side.

Bo hurried upstairs to see what was happening while Rose stayed behind to put the medical supplies that had been flung across the room back into their proper places.

As Bo arrived on deck, Ray spotted him and anticipating his question stated in an annoyed tone, "Leon over there came up here and slammed the door in such a fashion it caused the steering wheel to turn suddenly, but we're on the right course now." as he jabbed his thumb in Leon's direction.

"Hey, it's not my fault; Mr. Homemaker was supposed to be steering the ship."

Holding up his hands to stop their bickering, Bo asked, "Are we almost to Torenai Kingdom?" When Ray nodded in the affirmative, Bo looked over and saw that he could actually see the outline of the island just over the horizon. Satisfied, he directed his attention to other matters. "Has Tala come back yet?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah; she caught some food and took it to the crow's nest." Ray answered while pointing to where she was, though they couldn't see her at the moment.

Leon, meanwhile, gave an inward chuckle to the idea that a falcon was in the crow's nest. When Bo looked at him, though, he placed a hand on his lightly growling stomach and said, " You need to teach that bird how to share." in an irritated tone.

Bo glared at him for a moment before responding in a more open tone: "You're welcome to go ask her for some?"

"Last time I went near that damn bird, she nearly clawed my eye out." came the irritated response before adding, "She tries it again, I'll kill her."

"You kill her, I'll kill you." Bo replied, his voice now devoid of all previous playfulness or calm.

At this moment, Ray noticed Rose peeking out from behind a door, a hint of fear present in her eyes indicating she entered into the conversation at an inadequate time, though she was obviously trying to hide it. "Relax, they're talking about a bird; you can come out." he beckoned to her.

Bo and Leon followed Ray's line of sight and saw Rose tentatively coming from behind her cover. Figuring out what she may have misunderstood, Bo let out a sharp whistle and Tala flew out from her eating place in the crow's nest, still with a stray piece of flesh in her beak which she quickly gulped down after landing on the cast of Bo's outstretched left arm and Rose saw the same bird from before that had been sitting on Bo's shoulder: a female peregrine falcon standing almost two feet tall with slate grey feathers on its back leading to black wingtips and a dark brown underbelly, but what was most intriguing was the metal covering on the claws, beak and wings making it even more deadly. "This is my pet, a war falcon named Tala." Bo said as he used the back of his fingers to stroke Tala's feathers, his words seemingly breaking Rose out of a trance.

Rose didn't have much time to get familiar with the bird as the ship approached coast of the island and Ray jumped to the wheel to take over from Mage, who had been steering ever since the incident earlier, and dock the ship at port.

It took some time to line the ship up properly because Ray had never steered a ship of such enormous magnitude. But, once he had and the anchor was dropped, Mage, Bo, Leon, Ray, and Rose stood at the railing looking over the island, a pit forming in Bo's stomach as an uneasy feeling overcame him.

He'd only been to Torenai Kingdom two times before, but he remembered that it was a rich kingdom with a lively atmosphere. But, instead of the crowded streets bustling with noise, merchants, and carefree children, they were greeted by empty streets and chilling silence, the only sound being the wind and the only sights being the tall stone buildings and houses, all with their doors and windows shut. Even the docks were near empty with only a couple of galleon class ships, which mysteriously had no visible sails, sparking even more questions.

Ray held a similar eerie feeling of dread as he looked at the two other ships and as Bo scanned the members of his group, Ray seemed to be the only other one aware of the tension, though Leon was probably grinning because it excited him and Bo couldn't read Mage's stoic demeanor. Rose on the other hand clearly didn't sense the tension as she broke the silence with an energetic, "Let's go!"

"No." stated Bo as he stepped forward and looked at the other four before continuing, "Leon and I will go check things out and talk to the King, the rest of you will stay on the ship. Ray, watch over things here."

"Why can't I go?" whined Rose.

"I don't know what's going on here, and you're not ready for real battle." responded Bo, noting the upset look on Rose's face before she retorted, "Then why not take him?" pointing a finger at Mage, probably just trying to get rid of the person that scared her almost as much as Leon.

Ray then chimed in, "She's right. He would be able to help with potential enemies since you're injured."

"I don't know his hand to hand capabilities. He'll need to prove those to me first." Bo declared before letting out a sharp whistle and adding, "Besides, that's what I have Tala for." just as the bird landed on his shoulder.

After answering any objections, Bo turned to the civilians Ray saved on their home island and gave a warm smile before saying, "Don't worry, we'll find you somewhere you all can start over at." He then turned to Leon, giving a brief "Come on." as he grabbed his bow, strapping it over his chest, and jumped onto the ground below, followed shortly thereafter by Leon.

Unbeknownst to any of them, a lone figure, hiding in the shadows, had been watching the entire scene. It attempted to move closer, in order to keep an eye on the newcomers, and as it spoke, it was clear it was a man: "Wait, there not Marines. What are they doing here, and on a Marine battleship no less."


	10. Confrontation & Compromise

**Confrontation & Compromise**

There were only a few people in the streets as Bo and Leon approached the edge of the main town, but those few quickly dispersed once they caught sight of the pair. Soon, the streets were empty except for some abandoned carts and clotheslines as word of the strangers rapidly spread through the streets. For the next few minutes, Bo and Leon walked in silence through the center of the streets of the usually active town, until Bo whispered to Leon, "We're being followed." When he saw Leon's grin get wider, he warned him: "Wait until my command. We need information." Bo knew his words had gotten through when Leon's grin retracted slightly.

For the next few minutes, they had markedly slowed their pace and whispered nonsense between one another in an obvious manner, in order to attract whoever was following them into getting closer. Surely enough, the man following them gradually got closer and closer. Once he was almost in range, Bo whispered to Leon: "In ten seconds, stop and attack the position over your right shoulder." The next few seconds passed slowly, but just as Bo predicted, after ten seconds the mysterious man swiftly made his move towards the alley just behind the duo, but was caught off guard by their sudden stop. If not for Bo shouting "Now!" the man may have had his head cut off or at least been seriously injured.

Leon swung in a wide circle which Bo had to duck to avoid being beheaded himself while Tala flew up. The mystery man barely brought up his sword, a rapier, in time to block the strike, but he still had to use his left forearm to reinforce his block. Quickly recovering his balance, the man then jumped backwards to avoid being pinned against a building wall.

As he jumped back, Bo finally had a chance to get a decent look at him: he was taller than both Bo and Leon, standing what looked to be about 6'6 with neatly cut, blonde hair on top of very smooth-looking skin and soft, almost effeminate, features. He was wearing tight pristine white pants, shiny black boots, and a dark purple blazer-like top adorned with various medals on his chest and golden epaulets on the shoulders. He also wore a shawl-like accessory that was white with lavender fur lining, tied around his neck by a thick golden rope that kept it on his shoulders, covering his left shoulder and upper arm to about his elbow. What struck Bo was that in addition to the rapier, which Bo could tell had a slight cutting edge, being adorned with a variety of jewels and gemstones along the hand guard and three small gems (a ruby, a sapphire, and a diamond) embedded into the base of the blade, everything seemed to be made of the highest quality fabric, meaning that the person Leon was facing must have been very rich.

After jumping backwards, the man quickly lunged towards Leon pushing his sword forward with a mighty thrust, but Leon was able to bring his sword down with a slash strong enough to not only stop the thrusts, but to drive both swords into the ground.

Leon then used the position of both swords to slide his own blade up his opponent's effectively pinning his opponent's sword as well as aiming a lethal slash that left his opponent with no other choice but to release his weapon or suffer a grievous wound.

As Leon's blade was about halfway up his own, however, the man showed surprising strength for his lean figure and managed to toss Leon's sword aside and into the air, along with Leon's arm since his hand was still wrapped around the hilt, leaving Leon defenseless.

As the man prepared a thrust aimed for Leon's heart, Leon made an ingenious move and used the momentum of his arm being flung aside to pull his body to the side so the attack only left a small cut on his arm eliciting a sliver of blood while also allowing Leon time to recover and swing his sword at his opponent.

Due to his positioning, the man was unable to avoid the blow and settled for putting his left arm into the line of fire. Leon's sword connected with the shawl and cut through it, but somehow the fabric slowed the strike down enough to allow the man time enough to spin away from the blade before it could cut flesh.

After a brief standoff, the two combatants charged each other once again, Leon with his sword held high and the regally dressed man with a powerful thrust. The clash was interrupted, though, as Bo jumped in between them and used his shoes to push the man's rapier into the ground and caught Leon's wrist with the opposite hand and declared in an authoritative tone, "That's enough." finally deciding to stop the skirmish between the two.

As the two gradually calmed down, Bo lightened the pressure on the man's sword and loosened his grip on Leon's wrist, allowing both combatants to withdraw their weapons.

Leon stepped back and rested his sword on his shoulder, but the other man was more hesitant. He stood with his rapier at the ready until Bo spoke up again: "You can put your sword away. We only want to ask you some questions." The man merely scoffed at Bo's words, but finally complied when Bo uttered one more word: "Prince."

Though he was likely caught off guard, the prince didn't miss a beat as he put his rapier away, stood up to his full height, and spoke in a regal, though haughty, manner that seemed all too natural for the royal: "I am the second son of the great King Joseph Romanov, his Royal Highness, Prince Alex-"

"Yeah, yeah; we get it. You're royalty." Leon interrupted the prince's spiel as he waved his hand dismissively, ignoring the prince's growing rage at having his royal decree interrupted.

"You-" began the prince, anger shading his normal complexion with a reddish hue, as he clenched his fist so tightly his knuckles paled.

"Prince Alex, "intervened Bo, attempting to diffuse some of the tension so that he could get answers.

"Alexander." corrected the prince. When Bo raised a questioning eyebrow, he expounded, "My name is Alexander, Prince Alexander Romanov." still upset though his anger had been mostly distracted.

"Prince Alexander," Bo continued, though he was also getting annoyed by this pompous, royal brat, "we have come here to speak with the King, but first, where is everyone? I've come here before and it was lively, now it's a ghost town."

As if oblivious to Bo's question, Alexander asked one of his own: "Who are you and why did you arrive on a Marine battleship? You don't look like Marines."

Bo let out a groan of frustration as he ran his fingers along the bridge of his nose. He was getting tired of the prince's royal antics and he thought a better question was 'What the prince was doing this far away from the castle at the dock city, but he chose to ignore all of that for now and answer: "My name is Bo and this is Leon. We are part of a special Marine division." Leon quirked an eyebrow at the last statement, but just gave a menacing grin to Alexander while he watched the scene unfold.

Alexander seemed unsure at first, but after a moment's silence, decided to speak up: "The kingdom has been overthrown and the perpetrators have scared the people to the extent that they won't leave their homes most of the time. I contacted the Marines to send help a few weeks back."

"Why should we?" Leon chimed in. "We got nothin to gain from helping ya."

"You are Marines and we are a member nation of the World Government; it's your job."

"My friend here is right, though. We are a special division and from what I know, the king of this country is unjust, employs unfair taxes on the citizens, and owns a multitude of slaves-consistently enslaving more people-, etc."

Alexander, taken aback by Bo's words, had finally lost his haughty tone as he struggled for words. "My father may have his shortcomings, but under Hogg, the people are far worse off." he finally managed to stammer out. Seeing Bo's undecided expression, Alexander desperately added on, "I'll reward you handsomely: jewels, money, gold."

Bo raised an eyebrow at the latest proposal and mulled it over in his head before answering. After an extended pause to which both Alexander and Leon paid attention waiting on Bo's response, Bo smiled at the Prince and said, "Where's your older brother?" Leon just smirked as Bo manipulated the situation. He was used to it: both watching and being manipulated, but when it wasn't happening to him, Leon couldn't help but enjoy what extents Bo went to in order to control a situation as much as he could.

Caught off guard by the out-of-the-blue question, Alexander tried to regain as much of his dignity as he could before answering, ignoring the fact that Bo still hadn't answered his request due to not wanting to risk pissing off his kingdom's possible last hope: "He's currently on a trade mission with 20 of our Imperial Knights in the Grand Line. He's not aware of the kingdom's situation, but he should be coming back in another week or so."

"So what's he like; compared to your father."

"He's the greatest warrior this kingdom has. Though he often chooses to travel in the Grand Line to avoid my father, he never shirks his royal duties and always has what is best for the people as well as the kingdom in mind." Alexander practically glowed while speaking of his brother, though he was growing increasingly agitated at this line of questioning.

Bo smiled again, before declaring, "Then this country has a new King. Let's go!" as he finally resumed walking in the direction of the castle. Alexander was left speechless as his mind worked on figuring out what just happened, while Leon just smirked and followed after Bo.

Before he had time to fully understand what had just transpired, Alexander had to rush after the duo before they got too far ahead. "If you're going to help, don't you want to go get the rest of your Division?" he asked when he'd finally caught back up with them, "I'm not sure if you two alone will be enough."

"Ah, don't get ya panties in a bunch, Princess." replied Leon as the trio continued walking forward.

"Besides, it's not just the two of us; you're helping too." Bo chimed in as he clapped a hand on the prince's shoulder and smiled at his bewildered expression.

"Wha', ya scared, pansy?

"I'll have you know, I am one of the strongest men on in this island; second only in combat ability to my brother in the entire kingdom." Alexander boasted, the usual self-satisfaction and haughtiness returning to counter the offense made at his pride, as he stared down Leon who let his usual smug smirk grace his lips.

Bo separated the two and pushed them to continue walking before attempting to distract Alexander and learn about the current situation by asking, "What happened here; where is the kingdom's army? I want the whole story."

Alexander looked ahead into the distance as he contemplated where to begin. He knew he'd have to tell whoever came to help eventually, but he figured the Marines would send more than two people, especially on a warship that holds approximately 200 commissioned officers plus personnel and is usually led by a Vice Admiral, so that the details wouldn't matter as much.

Plus, even though he went to the marines for help, in keeping with his country's tradition, he wanted to divulge as little information as possible, that's why his brother still didn't know- he didn't have a reliable, covert way to quietly get him the information. More than anything he expected the Marines sent to simply help get rid of the enemy, not commit extortion against an allied kingdom of the World Government. Alexander let out a deep sigh as he started to tell the other two how things got the way they were now: "It started a few weeks ago."

As they walked through the expansive coastal town towards the gigantic castle looming at the center of the island- a trip that would take almost three hours at their current pace- Alexander told the tale of the man behind the coup, Tweed Hogg.

Alexander began with a mysterious hooded man that showed up and had a secret meeting with Hogg, one of the kingdom's top generals, on an isolated portion of the coast and supplied him with a chest, though the prince was unable to make out its contents from the spot up a hill in the midst of the forest he was eavesdropping from (it was after this that he alerted the marines because of what he suspected). Alexander tried to tell his father of his suspicions, but the King would never suspect a trusted general of his.

Next, he moved on to how over the next week or two more and more vagrants and other unsavory types started showing up on the shores of Torenai kingdom with even more visitors and new residents than the country had ever experienced at a single time in its history. Once again Alexander contacted the marines and his father wasn't worried because the guards quickly caught and arrested any troublemakers resulting in the castle's jails rapidly becoming overcrowded.

Up until that point, it had all been speculation on Alexander's part, and without his brother there no one would listen. However, after just over a month, everything came to a head when a pirate ship appeared at the coast on the poorer, rural side of the island. They attacked the clustered homes of those poor, tax-impoverished citizens, and because of the slow response of the kingdom's army (since it was only the poor inhabitants of the kingdom), the pirates, almost 50 in number were able to advance to the castle's rear gate before the Imperial Guard was mobilized.

The Imperial Guard tried to hold them back, but they were spread too thin due to an attack from many of the newer citizens from the more affluent portion of the kingdom on the front side of the kingdom as well as a prison riot inside the castle walls. The castle was under siege from the front, back, and inside all at the same time. Matters were only made worse when a select few of the kingdom's army turned on their comrades. The Guards continued to fight valiantly against the overwhelming onslaught even as many of them died one after the other, and eventually all of the turmoil forced Alexander onto the front lines to try and help quell an insurgency of such magnitude and strategy, but his departure allowed Hogg to enter the King's Court and easily subdue the King and force him to turn over the kingdom in order to save his remaining men's lives- more importantly, though, to save his own.

The Guard surrendered and Hogg became the new ruler with the pirates, the insurgents, and even the Imperial Guard (under threat of death) following his orders and executing his every whim to secure his newfound power and authority. Prince Alexander and a few others who refused to submit, or managed to escape, were forced into hiding, attacking from the shadows in defiance to overthrow Hogg and free the rightful king whenever they got the chance, but their numbers were dwindling almost as fast as their enemies.

"So, how many others are there now?" Bo asked once Alexander was through.

_Ring! Ring! Ring!_

A sudden ringing from inside Alexander's shirt jacket interrupted him before he could answer and instead he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small purple snail.

"What's that?" asked Leon

"This, you imbecile, is a Baby Den Den Mushi used for communication over short distances." came Alexander's indignant reply before he answered it while Bo held back Leon, "Hello."

"There's trouble."


	11. Under Attack

**Under Attack**

"What's going on?" shouted Alexander into the Baby Den Den Mushi in his hands, a twinge of worry entering his voice.

"The insurgents are becoming active; they sent out a small squad earlier. I think they're preparing for a battle." replied the voice on the other end. Bo and Leon couldn't be sure because their seemed to be some sort of commotion in the background, but the voice seemed like that of a female.

"So they finally spotted us, huh?" inquired Leon, his typical grin never leaving his face.

"No, Hogg wouldn't worry about three people, even if one of them was me. It has to be something else." replied the Prince. He was shaking his head, brow furrowed in thought; Alexander simply couldn't think of what could be the issue.

After a moment of thought, Alexander lifted his head as if he'd figured it out, but before he could say anything Bo interjected: "The ship. There's no way they could miss a Marine battleship sitting in the bay."

"Do... you want to…?

"No, our friends can take care of them." Bo cut off Alexander's question.

[Moments Earlier]

Rose was standing on the railing of the ship looking over the coast humming a note and swaying from side to side along with the tune. She hated being left on board the ship because it got boring so quickly; first the Vice Admiral wouldn't let her off due to, as he said, medical personnel being essential and therefore remained away from the front lines, though in actuality her inability to control her DF created as much harm for her allies as it did good. Even though she was upset at being left behind, she had to admit that right now as the sun looked to be almost directly over the island since it was midday, the island looked beautiful. The houses and shops seemed to sparkle in the sunlight as the light reflected off of the fancy stone that some of the larger buildings were made out of. Even what could be seen of the palace over the horizon was almost shining. It was the most beautiful structure on the island. The way the light bounced off of the pristine white marble of the walls was immaculate, but the way it intertwined with the sunlight bouncing off of the multi-colored stones that decorated parts of the walls as well as the glossy lavender that colored the roof were what really made the palace glow and gave it its glamorous aura.

As much as it pained her, Rose had to admit that just standing there, humming to herself, while a light breeze blew by causing her hair to sway with the wind was extremely relaxing even if she did long to be on the front lines exploring the island with Bo, not so much Leon.

Rose remained leaning on the ship's edge thinking as she hummed her tune. She stopped swaying, though, as a slightly stronger wind blew past leaving her hair waving to the right of her like a flag flapping in the wind. At the same time, she felt something whiz right by her head and through her hair. Due to the object ripping through the air directly next to her ear, her eyes instinctively tracked it as if it were moving in slow motion as she fell down and landed on her butt on the deck of the ship.

Due to the stress of the situation Rose couldn't make out exactly what flew by her head even though she saw it clearly, but, as her gaze followed the item's trajectory, her eyes quickly came to rest on the spot where a lead ball had driven itself into the floorboards of the main deck.

As she proceeded to let out an ear-splitting yell, a man a fairly long distance away from the ship, presumably the same man that fired the shot, stood up from behind some shrubs and tall grass wearing a red and gold captain's coat along with a black pirate captain's hat and holding a rifle with a bazooka strapped to his back. He put down the rifle and flipped the bazooka into his hands to take aim. The man easily aimed the weapon in her direction and released a single arcing shot aimed straight for Rose that would take her out as well as a piece of the ship. Rose could do nothing but watch as the projectile came rapidly barreling towards her; she didn't possess any abilities or weapons to stop a cannon ball. All she could do was move out of the way, and with each of her legs feeling like a bag of bricks, that wasn't even a viable option, not to mention what damage the ship might maintain.

As Rose closed her eyes in anticipation of the pain to come, she was surprised that it never came. Instead, she heard a loud explosion and felt the force rock the ship on top of the small waves the explosion triggered. She quickly opened her eyes to see Ray standing just outside the door holding the chain and one half of his segmented staff in his hand. He had used the chain hidden inside of his staff to launch one end of it and cause the blade to puncture and detonate the projectile headed their way.

As he pulled the chain back in order to reconnect his staff, Ray looked around on deck and upon seeing Rose still on the ground and the bullet embedded nearby, he was easily able to piece together that someone had fired a gun, he assumed it was the man standing up the hill because the angle matched, attempting to kill Rose. He was possibly one of the crew members from the ship they saw when they neared the island, though he was unsure if the man missed simply because he was a bad shot or some outside factor; he had even less idea as to why he was trying to kill her, though he could guess a few reasons. He was likely sent to take care of the unwelcome guests, but when his initial shot missed and Rose started screaming, he gave up on subtlety and was now simply trying to get rid of whoever was on the ship.

But even if that were the reason for such an unprovoked attack, Ray couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right as he turned to Rose and commanded, "Go watch over the civilians... and tell Mage to come up here immediately." Rose set off for the door at the same time Ray's unasked question was answered when more people stood up in the same general area as the first man, some even producing mortar cannons to attack with. Ray estimated there were about thirty enemies and six mortars plus the leader and his bazooka.

All six of the mortar cannons fired at the same time the leader fired a second shot from his bazooka. The seven projectiles all headed in Ray's direction in a slightly curving line pattern with the center one figuratively leading the way.

Ray separated his bladed pole arm exposing the chain within as he eyed the incoming cannon balls. He then gripped an end of the wooden staff section in each hand and spread his arms wide. Stretching his arms behind him to gather strength, the chef flung both sides of his weapon at the approaching threat allowing the chain to stretch to its full length of ten yards when he immediately wrapped his right hand around the center of the chain and pulled, causing the bladed ends to swing in a pendulum arc. With another quick jerk of the chain, the half that went to the left returned to his right hand while the other half swung in a dangerous path towards his neck. But, Ray easily caught this end as well with his left hand as the blade stopped just an inch from the back of his. In its wake, the defensive maneuver had cut through each cannon ball causing them to explode near simultaneously and at a closer distance than the last one.

The resulting explosion did some damage to the outside hull of the ship, but nothing worth worrying about as the resultant waves also pushed the ship out towards sea, stretching the chain of the anchor taut threatening to break under the stress.

At the same time, Mage stepped on deck wearing a black trench coat over his regular attire and had to stick a foot out to steady himself as a particularly violent wave threatened to push him overboard. Once he had steadied himself, he looked to Ray and asked, "You call for me?" in his normal, calm voice as if what was going on around them didn't matter in the slightest.

Ray ignored his nonchalant attitude as he ordered Mage to help him take out the enemies who had already discarded their heavy weaponry in favor of a more direct approach as they charged the ship guns, swords, and spears drawn and at the ready.

Mage opened his coat to reveal a multitude of glistening, sharp throwing knives aligned in rows along the inner lining. He grabbed three in each hand, holding them between his fingers, before sending them hurtling into the incoming mass. Due to the slight rocking of the ship and the constant advancement of the horde, it was difficult to connect with a clean throw, though two of the knives found a home embedded into the heads of two separate attackers. Mage continued pulling knives from his jacket and throwing them at the mob in rapid succession, but more merely nicked arms or legs or even ended up on the ground than actually killed their target. Mage's aim was further thrown off when those carrying guns began shooting at both him and Ray.

Ray backed away to the far side of the ship content with clearing the enemy once they got on the ship since he had no effective way of dealing with a crowd of ranged opponents. Mage on the other hand continued to throw some knives as best he could while avoiding getting shot. He managed to kill seven and wound another three to the point that they could not continue before being pushed into cover by the oncoming horde leaving both him and Ray to wait even as they heard ladders being notched onto the ship's railing so the enemy could climb aboard.

The group moved efficiently- climbing up the three ladders they had positioned along the ship without wasting any time- verifying Ray's assumption they were pirates and had definitely done this before. Ray and Mage tried to prevent them from boarding by using the range of the segmented staff and throwing knives, respectively, but the pirates were obviously used to boarding under fire as they deftly avoided getting hit and didn't even let the few who did get hit hinder them in the slightest. After a short while, Ray and Mage were forced to back down and allow them to board. There they stood, on the deck of the ship, two against twenty. Though the supposed captain was not among them, they didn't falter in the slightest.

As Ray and Mage had no choice but to take the defensive, they stood back to back as the attackers surrounded them; Ray readied his bladed staff and Mage brandished two heavy-tipped daggers dripping with a light liquid from holsters on his hips.

The mob advanced on the duo attempting to overpower them through numbers.

Ray used his staff to block three incoming swords before kicking the man in the middle of the three in the gut and twisting his pole-arm to throw off the other two at the same time Mage rolled forward avoiding the strikes of two men before inflicting small cuts on the legs of those in front of him. As Mage stood up, the five men he'd cut fell to the ground unable to move their legs.

"It's a paralytic poison; very effective. You like?" Mage said coolly as he turned around.

His action caused the pirates to briefly pause as they looked at the scene. This gave Ray enough time to create separation using his staff and provided the duo the opportunity they needed to take the offensive.

Mage rushed forward, his daggers held high, but the pirates were ready and they now knew to avoid his daggers at all cost lest the battle be immediately lost. This led to no shortage of awkward positions as the attackers clumsily tumbled over each other as well as their downed comrades in their attempts to maneuver. Unfortunately, this didn't make things any easier for Mage as the men whose legs he paralyzed were actively trying to attack him from there prone position while he simultaneously avoided his standing attackers and get as many strikes in as he could in this poorly choreographed dance of a stalemate.

Meanwhile, Ray used an artful, rhythmic martial arts reminiscent of Bo's staff fighting, but unlike Bo, Ray rarely attacked, instead using his opponents attack momentum against them. After he'd managed to incapacitate half of them, Ray's remaining four opponents were slower to attack, but refused to back down. In response, Ray thrust one of the blades into the enemy standing slightly separate from the others leaving his back exposed. But knowing this, Ray sidestepped the inevitable strike and, in the process, trapped the spear using his own weapon to pin it against him. Using a powerful side kick to disengage the wielder, Ray turned and tossed the spear at one of the remaining two as he knocked the other one twice upside the head with the staff section of his weapon. Ray then brought up his pole arm to block a sword strike over his left shoulder and in one fluid motion grabbed the back of his attacker's shirt with his left hand and slung him over his shoulder sending him crashing into the deck. With a quick elbow to the fallen man, all of Ray's opponents were down for the count and he was able to get a glimpse at how Mage was faring.

Mage had managed to take down his opponents by inflicting small cuts on their limbs. His poison was so effective that he only needed a small cut so that the poison could enter the blood stream and the limb would be useless shortly thereafter. Now, he had placed the daggers back into their sheaths and was using a small knife to kill his enemies one by one.

As he was about to slit the throat of another man, Ray called for him to stop. After looking up, Mage merely sent an elbow crashing down onto the man's face, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious, before standing back up and lazily kicking the final man overboard.

Mage gave a curious look to Ray as a ringing sound came from the chest of one of the downed attackers. After searching the man, he pulled out a Baby Den Den Mushi from inside the dead man's jacket. Ray ignored it, leaving it out to continue ringing as he simply responded with a command: "Go back up Bo; he might need your help."

"You trust me enough to follow orders; why don't you go yourself?" Mage asked curiously.

"You're better suited for the front lines. As you may have noticed I'm a bit of a pacifist. If you choose to do nothing, I'm fairly sure they can handle whatever they face, but understand... this is the moment you choose whether you're a member of this crew or an unwanted passenger." Ray replied evenly. He paused for a moment before adding, "Hurry; they're likely near the castle by now."

Chills ran up Mage's spine when Ray spoke- something neither Leon's attempted execution nor Bo's threat had managed to do- and with that, Mage leapt off the ship and rushed in the direction of the castle in an amazingly fast full sprint just as Rose stepped out from behind the door leading below deck. She hesitantly approached Ray, visibly nervous as she kept her head low trying not to look at the scene that had unfolded on deck and spoke in a shaky voice: "R- Ray, can I talk to you?"


	12. Siege Pt1

**Siege Pt. 1**

The trio had finally made it. They had left the city a while ago and had just been walking through open land except for crossing a bridge over a river that stretched out as far as the eye could see, appearing to extend entirely around the castle. Now they looked on at the lush, rolling green hills surrounding the castle only interrupted by a few exotic animals and the wooden, sometimes stone, structures that served as the servant's quarters.

As Alexander insisted on reminding his two compatriots, they could have made it here much quicker, but Bo insisted on taking the 'scenic' route. In truth, he wanted to verify that the kingdom's citizenry had indeed been left cowering in fear in their homes as Alexander previously stated. Now, though, the three stood at a small wooden gate; they had finally reached the castle grounds. They were still a short distance away from the palace, but now the mission truly started.

Leon's grin widened considerably at the prospect of facing off against an army. If he thought this was what being a Marine actually entailed, he would have joined up long ago. Alexander stood upright, his face the picture of determination and resolve, as he fingered the ornate handle of his rapier. Bo, standing between the two taller men, was similarly poised and ready for whatever was about to ensue. He was less than a week removed from his master's death. First Emma, then Taylor and Tyler (the twins), and most recently his teacher, Zande Ming; every time someone close to him was taken away, Bo was always too weak to stop it or avenge them. He needed to get stronger, become the strongest, but first he would fulfill the final promise he made to Master Ming. He would find a place that the few people they managed to save, thanks to Ray, would be able to start over without worry or fear. Even Tala could feel the energy and anticipation in the air as she let out a loud caw from atop Bo's shoulder. This is what she was trained for after all; war.

The group stepped forward, past the waist high fence surrounding the grounds as if it wasn't even there. Leon was going to make a comment about how such a pitiful fence was supposed to keep people out, but was interrupted when Alexander broke the silence instead. "Well, if they didn't know we were here already," referencing the numerous surveillance snails positioned at set intervals within the fence's parameter.

Bo simply ignored them as he continued walking towards the shacks that made up the servant's housing. Instead of venturing through the area and continuing towards the castle, he stopped before the opening that made up the entrance to the horseshoe shaped arrangement of structures. It was a large area, almost like a small village in itself. Bo and Leon looked on normally, but Alexander was confused by the sudden stop.

Before he could question, Bo yelled to seemingly no one at all, "You all can come out now." Leon grinned and Alexander was even more confused as nothing happened. Alexander was really starting to worry about his choice in accepting help from these two as a few more moments passed and Bo was growing increasingly frustrated that nothing happened, but Leon didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

Just as Alexander was about to question the sanity of the two people he'd joined up with, stirring could be heard from the buildings and shortly thereafter a man wearing light armor over his chest and shoulders, covered by a white tunic that had the kingdom's crest on it, with a helmet stood up on the building almost straight in front of them followed by another and another and another until almost 100 similarly equipped soldiers had emerged from the buildings' roofs and doorways each with weapon drawn, making one wonder where they all could have been hiding, and stood facing the three.

"The Imperial Guard." Alexander sounded almost shocked though he hid it well behind his regal image. "Stand down; I am the Prince of this kingdom."

The man who had stood up first spoke in a loud, booming voice, "We know who you are Prince Alexander. Please turn around now or we will have to use force." Alexander looked flabbergasted and more than a little annoyed at the head guard's words. The last line certainly didn't help his frustrations either: "We are only following orders."

Those words made Alexander seethe to the point that his body was actually shaking trying to calm itself down. 'Following orders'? He was in charge of the Imperial Guard, no orders superseded his own. Alexander gripped the handle of his rapier and began to pull it out of its sheath, but was stopped by Bo holding his hand over the hilt.

"We will not back down, so if you would be so kind as to come off those roofs, we can begin. These grounds set up a perfect battleground."

The leader contemplated the course of action. Their numbers certainly dwarfed the three opposing them. Not even the Prince could stand up to all of them simultaneously. But, something still nagged at him. There had to be a better plan, but nothing came to mind and it was clear the three would not retreat nor would they step forward and make themselves easy targets for an ambush; the two sides were at an impasse. Finally, after much deliberation, the Head Guard ordered his men to enter the area and prepare to engage the enemy, they still had the advantage even without an ambush due to the overwhelming amount they outnumbered them by.

"A battle between gentlemen." Alexander mused.

"Yea, insomuch as three versus 100 can be considered gentlemanly."

"No, this isn't about being gentlemanly." Bo stated as he reached into his shirt and pulled out a small sack. He applied a liquid to the bottom of the sac, making it susceptible to being ripped under the weight of its contents, and was holding it so Tala, who was hovering above his shoulder, could grip the bag in her talons.

Once the guards were gathered within the confines of the wooden and stone structures, Bo had Tala fly up far above the crowd and let gravity pull the contents of the sac onto the guards below. Small, round objects slightly larger than bullets bombarded the enclosed area causing a cacophony of explosions as each one impacted the ground below. Each explosion rocked the area, sending multiple soldiers careening and crashing into walls and each other as concussive forces and projectile debris took out the Imperial Guard and many of the buildings in one fell swoop. There was nowhere for the soldiers to run as bomb after bomb shook the area with surprising devastation for such a small weapon. The buildings that were intended to trap the trio now left the many soldiers with nowhere to run and the buildings themselves provided no safe haven as they too fell victim to the numerous bombs.

"Good girl;" remarked Bo as Tala flew back and alighted gently on his shoulder while he watched some of the guards struggling to stand back up, including the Head Guard who had a defiant look on his face, and commanded, "Leon, Alexander...take out the rest."

"Don't kill them; they're still my guards even if they have become misguided."

Leon scoffed as he ran forward. The few remaining guards were no match for Leon and Alexander due to the injuries they'd already sustained and went down quickly and easily.

Bo strolled through the area not even looking at the destruction he'd wrought. He figured some may have died, but the majority of them were likely protected by their armor from any fatal damage. Although it didn't much matter to him either way; Bo got no particular joy out of killing and only did it when he felt it necessary or the person had made him especially furious. Leon and Alexander rejoined Bo just as he was passing by the destroyed remnants of the building at the rear of the encampment. Alexander had made sure to merely disable the men he encountered, while Leon was surprisingly lenient and attacked from a distance that the resulting injuries were painful but shallow.

Once they had completely left the area, Alexander asked Bo, "How did you know they were hiding there?"

Not even looking from their destination, the palace walls which were steady getting closer, Bo answered him in an offhanded manner: "Simple. They had to have seen the ship at the coast, which means they knew we were here. If by some chance they didn't, like you said, they would have found out when we crossed the gates onto the palace grounds. But, since no one was charging at us over some hill, and I figured they would choose to finish this away from the palace if possible, they had to have already been set up. That was the only place for them to hide so I took a shot."

Alexander mulled this over as they walked, considering whether or not Bo was telling the truth. As far as he knew, Bo had given him no reason not to believe the explanation, and he couldn't think of any other way for Bo to have known, but it just didn't feel right. When he told the guards to come out, he sounded too sure to have been guessing. Even if it was based on solid facts it just didn't make sense.

"Hey Prince, your questioning my honesty is going to have to wait." Bo's voice tore Alexander from his thoughts and he looked at him and saw Bo removing the bow from his shoulder.

"Wha- Why? I mean, what are you talking about?"

Bo merely pointed ahead in answer. Ahead of them, just over the horizon, the base of the palace walls was visible and in front of them stood a small army of rebels, outlaws, and mercenaries. The sight was certainly intimidating as each man looked like he had battle experience and was more than capable of holding his own in a fight. But, it obviously wasn't near enough to impress Bo and Leon who had spent years fighting, with only a few friends, pirate crews making their last stop before entering the Grand Line, as once they arrived atop a hill where they could clearly see the open field and the enemies ahead of them, Bo offhandedly remarked "There's not as many as I expected," to which Leon nodded in agreement.

Alexander obviously wasn't listening closely as he stated, "We took out as many as we could, but there was only so much-" before actually realizing what Bo said and responding "If you thought there would be more, then why only bring two people? You must have more bombs left." in an expectant, almost panicky, tone.

"Not that many; now we fight. Besides, there spread out enough that bombs would just cause problems for us." Those words had opposing effects on Bo's partners: Leon had a wide grin- he'd finally be able to let loose, he hoped they could take it- while Alexander looked a tad nervous about facing such odds.

Bo could see the look on Alexander's face though he was trying to hide it behind a regal facade. "Why are you nervous? You're plenty strong enough to deal with stronger than this bunch." he encouraged. "Us three against a small army, maybe I should sit this one out." Bo mused with a smirk on his face.

"You and Princess can both sit out; more fun for me." Leon growled while tapping his sword on his shoulder.

"No, we're all going to fight. Don't worry about holding back, though." That was all the encouragement Leon needed as he began charging straight into the heart of the enemy, sword held behind him. Bo was nearly as excited, but he first had to take care of the enemy gunmen who had been firing but none were good enough to come close at such a distance. In doing so, Bo pulled out and nocked an arrow that had a small hole in the arrowhead just big enough to snugly fit a single bomb. He quickly fired one and then another of these special arrows, both hitting their targets, the base of the lookout tower on each side of the entrance gate causing them to crumble, crushing the gunners inside as the remaining debris fell on some of the nearby men.

Bo then cut the string on his bow, happy but curious that they didn't have more gunners, and ran towards the battlefield, with his staff now in hand, after giving his quiver to Tala who flew off in a random direction.

Alexander, still unsure of the two people whose help he'd enlisted, ran towards another area of the battlefield as well, his pride not allowing him to be outdone by outsiders in freeing his kingdom.

Leon arrived first in the midst of the battle. He charged forward into the mass of outlaws letting gravity pull him as he ran down the hill. He brought his sword from behind him and swung it around at five men that had attempted to quickly surround him. A deep gash was inflicted across the stomachs of the first two, made worse by the forward momentum Leon still had, but the others were more prepared. It took the combined efforts of the next two to block the powerful strike, but with his attack stopped, Leon was open for attack from the final man.

The burly fellow swung his sword down towards Leon, but Leon planted his right foot in the ground and used the remaining momentum from charging down the hill to twist away from the strike, planting his hand in the ground to stop his body from moving. A wide swing allowed Leon to force back the people that had thought that a good opportunity to attack as well as let him gear up for another forward swing.

The two men that had blocked his previous attack jumped back to avoid this one, but Leon made an improbable move and turned his strike into a thrust with the utmost skill skewering the two men effortlessly. As he withdrew his sword, Leon grabbed the front man by the throat, using him as a distraction by throwing him into the crowd that had gathered behind the last of the original five he'd engaged while he ducked and spun in a full circle with his blade out and cut clean through the burly man and gouged deeply into another.

Fully engrossed in the battle, Leon continued his assault with a smile on his face and blood flowing around him while Bo entered the fray as well. Bo would have preferred to use his bow to take down enemies as he approached, but the sheer number of them required that he have the staff ready for immediate use. Launching himself into the middle of the enemy forces, Bo jabbed one end of his staff through the head of a combatant behind him. Pulling the blade out, he stabbed the man in front of him with the other end, and spun the staff around using the small but sharp points at each end to cut down the nearest wave surrounding him. Crouching down in a low stance holding his staff behind him with one hand, Bo prepared to continue his fight.

At the same time, Alexander prepared to take on another portion of the outlaws, but instead of jumping into the middle of them like Bo and Leon, he stopped in front of them, drawing his rapier and taking up a fencing stance as the horde rushed in for the kill.


	13. Siege Pt 2

**Siege Pt. 2**

As the fighting raged on, the trio quickly realized that a number of these outlaws were actually fairly well trained and capable of putting up more of a fight than initially expected. Nonetheless, Leon continued to slaughter man after man without inhibition, all the while smiling. Using a combination of powerful slashes, deft thrusts, and a deceptive dexterity borne from years of intense training and exercise to build up his body and technique to the pinnacle of strength and nimbleness, Leon was able to mow down enemies with almost no injury to himself.

Alexander also managed to take down multiple attackers with little injury thanks to his expert use of rapid, precision thrusts to fell some attackers and quick, shallow cuts to discourage others. At times, though, Alexander was forced on the defensive by the sheer number surrounding him. His shawl-like accessory showed its usefulness in those situations as he would use it to block weaker slashes that he was unable to focus on. The blend of a special iron silk and underlying steel wire topped with diamond dust created a highly expensive, fine material capable of stopping most slashes and even some stabs- it worked a lot like chain mail, but was more easily concealed as normal clothing giving him an extra edge in battle.

Bo, however, wasn't faring as well as expected. His attackers struggled to hit him as his speed was greater and he knew exactly how to dodge each strike, but his bruised, possibly fractured, bones in his forearms hadn't had enough time to heal and the thin casts that allowed him near full mobility did little to prevent the shockwave of some of his attacks from jarring his injuries. At one point, as Bo swung his staff forward, a large man wielding a heavy broadsword met his attempt head on wisely blocking the staff instead of the blade which, though small, was designed to focus maximum energy in a smaller area. Had the man blocked the spearhead like point instead, the flexible wapometal staff could have bent back and let the blade rebound forward at the large man thus completing the assault nonetheless, but by blocking the staff, he stopped the attack in its entirety. The push back from the jolting clash, though, sent waves of pain down Bo's arms temporarily distracting him from another attack from his right. Because his staff was intertwined with the weapons of two others besides the large man, Bo released his staff and jumped back just in time to avoid having his arms cut off. He immediately pushed off his feet and rushed the man who launched the surprise attack. Grabbing the man's head with both hands, he drove his knee directly into the man's face. Bo then gripped the man's shoulders, spun around and threw him into the three men he'd been engaged with before. With them down, he ran to pick up his staff. As he was reaching out, he instead planted his hand on the ground and pushed off launching himself over the man who'd just used a spear to block him from reaching his weapon. When he turned around, Bo was forced to jump back even further away from his staff by two more men using their own weapons to try and strike him. Without his staff, Bo could do little more than dodge against the mass of bladed weapon wielding enemies. Even the occasional counter was for naught as the simple act of punching added undue stress upon his previous injury. His backwards dodging was also cut off when his back collided with a solid surface. Looking over his shoulder, he cursed as he saw the towering figure of a man at least seven feet tall holding a double-sided axe befitting his stature, wondering briefly how he could have missed such an imposing person. Bo charged at the group that had been attacking him and caught them off guard with the sudden change in strategy. He knocked out the one in front with a well-placed palm to the chin and followed it up with a back fist and a series of elbows to those closest. Bo then performed a backflip over the towering man behind him just as the axe came crashing down upon him. Bo barely avoided being sliced in two and landed behind his most recent attacker. With a quick combination of strikes to the man's lower back directly on his spine, Bo easily disabled him. Feeling the throbbing pain in his arms and with essentially only his legs as viable weapons, Bo opted to move his fight closer to where Leon was still slicing through those willing and unwilling to oppose him. Bo hated having to do that; he'd known and fought with Leon enough to know that his complete disregard for human life while in battle could be a nuisance. Whether friend or foe, male or female, if you got in front of his sword, you'd be cut down. Moving in close to Leon gave Bo one more person he had to dodge, but Leon's recklessness would make taking out the rest of the rebels easier.

Leon saw Bo getting closer and noticing that he was without his staff, figured Bo expected him to take down most of the group after him. Leon didn't like being used. Even when he and Bo used to train and fight together, he rarely did anything he didn't want to. Being pushed to do increasingly more stuff he didn't want to was one of the reasons he stopped training under Ming when he thought he was strong enough. His frustration was lessened by the prospect of more victims and the fact that he wouldn't have to change up his style. Leon knew more than well enough that Bo could easily dodge many of his strikes even when they were aimed at him; if he did happen to cut or kill Bo, he'd just be mad at Bo for getting weaker in the last few years.

As the conflict continued on, Bo and Leon looked more like a practiced team than two individuals fighting against a mass of enemies. It almost looked like the two were implementing a tag team tactic. In fact, they were. The duo was using an impromptu strategy they'd mastered back when they, along with Ray, used to have three-way sparring contests: Bo would lure any opponents attacking him into Leon's range and use his agility to avoid getting cleaved in two; when the opponents started focusing on Leon instead, Bo was able to easily knock them out with well-placed kicks.

This method of attack combined with some solitary fighting took out most of the horde attacking Bo and Leon, but one warrior managed to avoid being beaten by the move. He'd seen it enough times during the battle that when he noticed Bo constantly moving away from his sword swings, he readied himself to block Leon's blind side attack. Surely enough, when Leon swung around with his sword, the man used his second sword to deflect Leon's blade without halting his attack on Bo. Understanding the situation he was in standing between two strong adversaries, the man jumped back as soon as his feet touched the ground and landed between two other men wearing identical chest armor and holding full body sized shields in front of them. The middle aged warrior stood between them, a pair of tan leather pants his only clothing aside from a pair of metal gauntlets around his hairy forearms, with a sword at the ready in each hand. His eyes glared at Bo and Leon from within his helmet almost daring them to attack.

Eager to finish off their last standing opponents and move within the palace walls, Bo and Leon charged forward and launched devastating attacks from each side -a kick and slash, respectively- but the two shield bearers stepped forth bracing their shields with both arms, intent on stopping the attacks. Even with all of their weight behind the attacks, the shields held firm under the force. Before Bo and Leon could launch a follow-up, though, the shield bearers pulled out swords from behind their shields forcing the duo to retreat.

"Rahaha! You two are strong, I'll give you that; to be able to take down all those men." The dual-sword wielder spoke in a gruff voice while his two partners smirked from behind their shields. "But, you don't stand a chance against us. Your little tactics are useless when you can't even-"

The man suddenly stopped talking. His partners turned around to check why he had stopped talking and their smirks slowly faded as they saw a thin blade sticking out from the front of the man's neck. Their jaws dropped as the blade was slowly withdrawn from their leader's neck and his body slumped to the ground in front of them. At the same time, their simultaneous gaze drifted up the blade of the sword to its owner. They had completely forgotten about their original opponents who were fast approaching behind them. Before they even saw who had killed their leader, Leon had cut the head off one of them while Bo brought a roundhouse kick down in a diagonal, chopping path directly on the neck of the other. The force was so great that he was driven into the ground and his neck snapped as his body left a crater below him. The two fallen enemies dropped their shields as they were defeated and at nearly the same time the two shields landed on the solid ground and shattered upon impact.

"We could've taken care of 'em." Leon spoke to the person who provided the distraction and made the quick defeat possible in an irritated tone. "Next time, keep your wimpy blade out of my fights; got it, Princess?"

Prince Alexander responded in a haughty tone. "Quit complaining, muscle head. I had actually beaten all of my opponents and we don't have time to waste."

Leon growled in frustration and gripped his sword's handle tighter, but instead of attacking, he simply walked by the Prince towards the large gate making the entrance to inside the palace walls.

Once Bo picked up his staff and restrung it to act as a bow, the trio gathered in front of the towering front gate. Leon readied himself to cut down the wooden gate, but Bo informed him it would be unnecessary. Taking the hint, Leon stabbed his sword into the ground and prepared himself to open it with brute strength alone. Alexander scoffed at that approach and voiced his opinion that it would prove impossible for Leon to open the gate with only his strength. The prince's comment sparked a heated back and forth over whether Leon could indeed open the gate with his bare hands.

After almost a minute of arguing, Bo grew annoyed by their bickering and loudly cleared his throat. When they still ignored him, Bo cleared his throat again- louder this time.

"What?!" Alexander and Leon shouted in unison, pausing their argument long enough to glare at Bo.

Rage flashed over Bo's face as he grabbed each of them by the throat before speaking in a cold voice: "Stop squabbling like children."

Presuming both he and Leon were older than Bo, Alexander felt the urge to belabor the point, but something kept him from speaking up and he instead opted to pull back from Bo's glare as much as he could with his throat caught in the younger man's firm grip. Leon, on the other hand, merely smirked- as he'd seen that look before and knew it was more of an empty threat than a foreboding sign- and mockingly choked out, "Fine, Captain. What do you propose we do?" with Bo's hand still around his throat.

Releasing his hold on their throats, Bo ignored Leon's attempt at humor and simply pointed to the large gate in question with an exasperated expression on his face. For seemingly the first time, the pair actually gave a good look to the gate. At first they didn't notice anything peculiar, but after a bit more time surveying the structure, the Prince donned an expression of surprise as he uncovered what he'd failed to realize before. Much to the surprise of both him and Leon, Bo had noticed something rather basic that they had failed to detect in the midst of their arguing- the large gate in front of them was actually slightly ajar. While hardly noticeable, due to the sheer size of the door, this small opening made it where they could push the immense door open enough that they could walk through.

Alexander mulled over under what circumstances the gate was left slightly open- the mercenaries failed to close it behind them as they arranged in front of the palace walls, one of the explosions from Bo's arrows knocked it loose, or large men repeatedly slamming into it in the midst of the previous battle forced it open? No matter what he thought of, none of the possibilities made any sense to him because, better than any outsider, he knew the entire castle was meant as the pinnacle of defensive fortitude. The walls were impenetrable and no one had ever gotten through the door without permission. The palace had never fallen in the history of the kingdom without an enemy among the palace soldiers or personnel like the most recent occurrence he was trying to rectify. The only prospect that made even an inkling of sense was that Hogg had his forces intentionally leave the door cracked so the trio could be ambushed in the circular room behind the doors. That was it –it was a trap. But why? It made no sense; Hogg's forces had to be running low. He could've holed up within those walls and staved the three off.

Preoccupied by his own thoughts, Alexander didn't hear Bo order him and Leon to push open the door so they could walk through it. He was brought out of his thoughts as Leon's voice broke through. "Why don't you stop being lazy and help yourself?"

"Just do it."

Alexander stood silent and unmoving as Leon stabbed his sword into the wood of the door and slowly, singlehandedly forced the towering door open. As the giant door creaked open, Alexander finally found his voice. "Wait," he shouted "it's probably a trap. They're waiting for us; the Elites."

Leon didn't pause his endeavor for even a second as Bo calmly responded, "Relax, there's no one behind that door… At least not conscious." He finished with a smirk. Just as he said that, Leon stood up, wiped his brow, and pulled his sword from the splintered door. Alexander had to break himself from his reverie as Bo went ahead and followed Leon into the confined space.


End file.
